Cradle Robbers
by hollyandthediamonds
Summary: Her tiny fingers wrapped around it and tightened with a significant amount of strength for that of a newborn. It was recognition. Ume was in there, looking up at me through the eyes of Elise Beckett. She knew what I had done to her, and I felt guilt and turmoil in the depths of my being over my selfish decision. "You would have died, Ume,"
1. Born to Die

[**Kimura, Ume**]

The film fuzzed out, finally clicking to an end. The screen on the television set shone a bright blue as the VCR automatically began to rewind.

I had been numbed to the last several hours of Chapter Black, not really seeing any of it. I sat, chained to the chair with bloodshot eyes, my ears ringing with the tortured screams that I had sat through. I had blacked out in the middle of it, but the chair had held me in place. When I`d awakened to the still playing footage, I gagged and retched all over myself.

Dried vomit clung to my legs, hair matted to my face. I may have even pissed myself. I hardly knew how many hours I had been sitting there. My entire body ached,.

I didn`t expect anyone to be searching for me, not after that. I was lucky enough to be chained to a chair and not hung by my hair over a pool of hungry cannibals as it had been portrayed in one of the scenes.

"I see you`ve finished."

Shinobu stepped forward and pressed the button on the front of the television set. Tall, tan, with an innocent enough face. His eyes looked colder than I had always remembered them to be.

"Now do you see what we`re protecting?" He faced me, his posture holding onto a hardness, as if it were physically bearing the massive chip on his shoulder.

I couldn`t reply, my mouth was too dry to verbalize anything in that moment. I wanted to puke again, but my stomach was empty.

"Ume, listen to me," He lifted my chin with a long, tan finger, and I looked up at him, exhaustion weighing down on my eyelids, though I knew I wouldn`t sleep for a long time.

"We`ve been fighting the wrong battle this entire time. Help me set things right."

I felt liquid leak out of my eyes, I could cry again. Tears spilled from my face, and I couldn`t seem to catch my breath as I began to sob so hard that my entire began to shake violently. I couldn`t erase the images that the film had burned into my brain.

"Your Prince has been lying to you," His lips were close to my ear, words burning through the screams that were set on repeat inside my mind.

"Itsuki and I will set it right. We could use your help."

"Eh.." I tried to choke the words, but ended up coughing and choking on my dry tongue. My throat felt like sand paper, stretching down to the burning depths where my stomach was being scorched with acid.

My head was lifted again, and something cool was poured down my throat. Immediately I assumed it was poison or blood. One of the more horrifying scenes of the film showed humans forcing demon women to drink their children`s blood.

I spit it out, shrieking at the memory.

"Easy, Kimura. It`s water."

"Never!" I choked, "I will never help you!" I was still in hysterics,

"Just leave me alone! Get that _fucking tape_ away from me!"

"She`ll come around, Shinobu," Another voice was in the abandoned shed with us. There was at least a full minute of silence, filled with only the noise of my lungs trying to catch a breath.

"You know where to find me when you change your mind." His last words to me. The shackles holding me to the chair were released, and I slid to the floor, curled into a ball as I listened to the tape being ejected from the player, and their footfalls growing softer as they left me alone.

I was conflicted. What had we been fighting for? What good was there in humanity, really? We were all selfish, greedy little pricks. We took more than we needed, and we destroyed beautiful things every day.

I stared at the wall of the shed for a long time, feeling some of my brain cells dying off, one by one. Every blink portrayed another victim, not only the ones from the tape, but of the demons I had killed myself.

Get a hold of yourself, something screamed from inside of me.

Need to find Koenma, tell him what Shinobu`s done. Get my head on straight.

Sunlight sifted through the wooden boards, it was still daylight out. I could still find my way if I could just make myself get up.

I managed to stand on shaky legs, still dry heaving for air. I was sticky, and in desperate need of a shower. I used the wall to support myself as I tried to reach for the door.

It pushed open easily, swinging on its hinges. Sensui hadn`t bothered to bolt me in after I had finished watching his filthy documentary.

The sunlight was blinding, drenching me in its warmth. It was a hot, summer day, and though the shed had been shaded, it was stuffy and a thousand degrees warmer inside. I wanted to lie in the grass, to soak the sunlight just to see if it would make the turmoil and darkness that had been planted inside my head go away.

I only needed to lie there for a moment, just needed to compose myself. The grass was inviting, and I was far from civilization.

Sleep captivated me, though I dreamt of nothing but horrors that my own mind had begun to invent all on its own. My soul had been tainted, mind poisoned forever.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Born To Die**

**I've lived a lot of different lives, been different people many times.**

**I live my life in bitterness and fill my heart with emptiness**

I would never forget that dream.

I was in an amusement park, and there were all of these rides. There were humans standing on the ground, in control of the rides, but there were only demons riding them.

I noticed that all of the rides ended in painful deaths. The rollercoasters were colliding into each other, ending in explosions or reeling into a pit of spikes. Fun houses turned into giant ovens, swings crashing into each other at full force. Limbs of demons flying down onto the crowds of cocky humans, laughing and jeering from the ground.

It wasn`t an amusement park, but a death camp. It was genocide. And we were the Nazis.

I kept screaming and crying out until Sensui found me among the crowds, and dragged me out of those crowds and onto the Ferris wheel. We rode all the way to the top and the wheel stopped. It was just Shinobu and I, watching all of the torment from the highest point.

"This is what we really are," He told me, "We`re the only ones capable of stopping this."

"Make it stop!"

/

"Make it stop!" My eyes were open, and I was staring up at a strange man. I was shaking, always thrown after I`d blacked out.

"Who are you? I don`t know who you are!" I started shouting and shoving my palms against the foreigner.

"Ume, get a hold of yourself!"

He grabbed onto my wrists.

I started shrieking, feeling my body trying to reject my empty stomach. The pain was unlike any battle wound I`d endured in my short years of working as a Spirit Detective.

"Ogre, get some food!" He shouted over my struggling body. I was weak, finding it hard to tap into my spirit energy.

Which, I guess was a good thing. It`d be a shame if I`d killed my own boss.

"Koenma!" I shouted, finally matching his face to memory, and shooting up in the bed I was lying in. I had been cleaned off, and no longer smelled like a penguin house. Someone had pulled my hair into a bun, and changed me into a white gown.

"Shinobu! He has Chapter Black!" I started in on the situation. He held up a hand, his usual seriousness gracing his adult form`s featured.

"I`m aware, Ume. You should lie down."

When I only stared at him, he wrapped his pale fingers around my shoulder and lightly pushed me back down onto the pillows. I watched him warily, finding myself to be extremely jumpy after watching the _documentary._

"You were lying in that field for a little over twenty four hours before we found you."

Jorge, the aforementioned ogre, returned with some graham crackers and orange juice, which I ate slowly.

Koenma watched in silence for a few moments, allowing me to swallow a few bites of food before asking the dreaded question,

"Did you watch that tape?"

He knew the answer, only asking in case there was any hope at all that I hadn`t.

"Yes and the rumors are true," I said bitterly, "I`m disgusted by my own race."

"It`s true, Chapter Black has the sort of power to turn any human against his own race. Sorry to say, Shinobu has been… resigned from his post."

"That`s it?!" I snapped, "Is no one hunting his ass down?"

"Let it go, Ume, it`d be a lost cause. He`s disappeared."

I groaned and buried my face in my hands, "I`ll do it myself."

"No, you will not," His voice harsh, I felt the bed shift as he stood.  
"My father`s nervous to even let you stay on as a Spirit Detective after having endured Chapter Black."

He turned to the window, brushing back the curtains as we stayed silent.

"So you`re firing me?"

He was silent, and I took the long pause as my answer. I had been kidnapped, forced to watch hours of traumatizing footage and lost my job in the same week.

I looked down to the stains on my wrists where the shackles held me to the chair I`d been seated in for the duration of the tape. Yellow and blue, bruising from all of the force I`d put into trying to escape.

"I`ve always known that the human race needed to die. None of that was new to me," He gave me a steady look, probably wondering if his father way right about me.

"Oh, please, everyone knows humanity is ugly. I deserve to die as much as the next blundering idiot."

"And you had that frame of mind before you saw Chapter Black."

"Of course I did. I know plenty of humans that deserve to live, though. I don`t kill unless I have to."

"You always were more merciful than Sensui."

"I just don`t see the point in wasting my energy on demons that aren`t worth it. He`s like a freight train, plowing through anything that isn`t of the Ningenkai. We`ve argued over it before, I guess that`s why he thought I`d be more willing to turn against my own kind."

"I wonder how he`s planning on wiping out the entire human race." He let the curtain fall back over the window, dimming the bedroom.

"It seems that he`s partnered with someone else. I heard another voice when I was trapped in that shed."

His eyebrows furrowed, wondering who Sensui would willingly pair with, as it was a struggle for him to even include me on the missions we were given as a pair. Shinobu was a loner when it came to everything, he even ignored me at school. Our peers didn`t have a clue that we knew each other outside of our classes together.

"Koenma," I tried to land on the subject lightly, sitting back up,

"This is a hunch, but, I think I know who he`s partnered wi-."

I was interrupted by the sound of the compact communicator in Koenma`s pocket

sounding an obnoxious tone. He held up a finger and retrieved the mirror from his pocket and hurriedly exited the room as he flipped it open and answered.

I sighed, laying back down and staring at the ceiling. The screams of pain had subsided from my head, I was trying to mentally block them as best as I could.

I`d watched documentaries on genocide before, I knew how cruel we could be. But if we believed we deserved to die, than why would Chapter Black have bothered any of us in the first place? If we were to try and wipe out the entire human race, then that would make us the Nazi Army.

"I`d be damned if I had to wear that ugly ass swastika." I mumbled, trying to humor myself for the time being.

"You won`t have to worry."

I flung myself out of the bed just as the ball of spirit energy took out my arm. I felt the ligament pull from my body, every nerve screaming bloody murder. I couldn`t think of much else but the pain, and the betrayal I`d felt once again being cornered by my own teammate.

I couldn`t even find words to scold him with as I stared down at my bleeding shoulder. I had no arm, I wouldn`t be able to use my only offense.

Shinobu gripped the footboard of the bed I had been lying in and slid it across the door, blocking the door.

"I was wrong to believe that you wouldn`t talk to Koenma, I should have known he would have you brainwashed beyond the point of no return."

"You`re the only sorry fuck that`s brainwashed, Shinobu!" I shouted through my tears, grasping my bleeding shoulder. I was losing too much blood.

I only cowered into the corner, watching him draw closer. He was so much more intimidating when he was working against me and not at my side.

"I`m sure this isn`t goodbye," Another orb of spirit energy appeared, hovering between his hands only a few feet form me,

"Meet me in the future."

/

The light hit me and I felt my lungs shriveling in my tiny body. I was screaming, taking breaths for what seemed the first time in a long time. Years, maybe. I reached my arms out in front of me, they were tiny, thicker than I was used to. My fingers looked like sausages. I couldn`t keep them uncurled for too long, as it was too exhausting.

People were cooing over me, and I was wrapped up in a blanket and placed in someone`s arms. I looked up into the green eyes of my mother. She was sweating, tears running down her face, hair matted to her forehead. She was breathing heavily, crying as she clung me to her.

"Elise," She spoke in English, "We`re naming her Elise Helena Beckett,"

Another blonde now, this time a man. He was tall, thin, with tan skin and grey eyes. I looked up at them through squinted eyes. They were both smiling wide, giggling to themselves with joy.

"Ellie," Another voice chimed at their side, and a toddler with a blonde bowl cut bob appeared in my line of sight. Her eyes were dark, with long eyelashes and chubby cheeks.

"Jill, this is your new sister."


	2. Baby Mine

[**Koenma**]

I extended my index finger out to the infant before me. Her tiny fingers wrapped around it and tightened with a significant amount of strength for that of a newborn. It was recognition. Ume was in there, looking up at me through the eyes of Elise Beckett. Deep, blue eyes stared wide into mine, filled with the wonder that many babies held.

And then, they turned cold, accusing. She knew what I had done to her, and I felt guilt and turmoil in the depths of my being over my selfish decision.

"You would have died, Ume," I spoke in a hushed tone, leaning over the cart she had been placed on in the nursery. There were other newborns sleeping, unattended while the nurse was on her break.

"Elise would have died from heart complications. Your generous amount of life energy is keeping her heart beating ."

I saw her tiny chest begin to heave, and I hesitated to reach for her. I wanted to, but I was afraid to touch her. She was still in a very fragile state.

And then tears formed in her eyes, and she began screeching at me. I panicked, abandoning whatever fears I had and picked her up,cradling her infant form my arms.

It felt strange, I had spent so much time in my infant form, and yet I still didn`t have the first sense of what it was like to actually be so small and lacking in motor skills.

I rocked back and forth with Ume pressed close to my chest, head resting against my shoulder. She fit so small into the long arms of my adult form.

"I couldn`t just let you die," I whispered to her, and she hiccupped into my shirt. She whined here and there, displeased. I held her for some time, just rocking, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, slowly, steadily.

She began to quiet after a few minutes, and I was able to lay her back down.

I didn`t have much time left with her, the attendant would be returning any moment. I leaned back down and planted a kiss upon the crown of her head.

"Be good, Ume. I`ll be watching."

* * *

**Chapter 2: Baby Mine**

**There's a ghost in my lungs and it sighs in my sleep**  
**Wraps itself around my tongue as it softly speaks**

I noticed her as she levitated atop an oar just outside of my window. A messenger from the Spirit World. The last time I`d seen a reaper was when Christina Beckett, my new mother and Elise`s mother, had gotten in her accident several years before.

When she lost our new born baby brother.

I watched a silver haired reaper hold little James Jr. to her with a pained expression when she had appeared at the scene of the accident. There wasn`t much left of the car, mostly just pieces of engine scattered among the side of the road and a banged up, misshapen hunk of metal that was once a vehicle. The side Elise`s brother, my brother, had been seated on had been completely caved in. There was no way he would have survived that type of collision.

This girl had bright, pink eyes and cotton-candy, blue hair. I stopped short when I noticed a familiar looking boy floating next to her.

Yusuke Urameshi, my classmate. I looked back to where his seat was, a few rows over, and realized that he had skipped once again. To my right sat Keiko Yukimura, his childhood friend and long time crush (Though he seemed repulsed by the idea.). I watched in horror as his arrogant features looked down through the window I was seated beside.

Though I felt sad for Keiko and my now dead classmate, only one thought occurred to me;

That reaper was going to take Yusuke to the Reikai.

I locked eyes with the girl on the oar, mouthing the words "_I see you" _to her, and then I turned to Yusuke.

"Your classmate can see us!" She squeaked, I could read their lips from such a close distance. Yusuke`s eyebrows raised, and he stared at me, surprised. I had to find my way out there, to the rooftop.

I excused myself from the room, running and holding my stomach as if I were about to hurl. If someone wanted to accuse me of faking it, I could prove that I`d thrown up. I was a resourceful girl when I needed to be, and took advantage of the purging lesson my sister, Jillian, had given me.

I realize that bulimia is a serious mental illness, but I wasn`t going to let one of my peers make an asshole out of me. I was getting far too old for that shit.

I booked it for the stairs, heading for the roof. If I didn`t resent King Enma so much, I would have prayed that they had waited for me.

Sure enough, they _had_ waited, and I shouted down at them from over the ledge of the building, leaning over the stone wall to look at them.

"You! Reaper!" I greeted them as they floated up to the roof.

"Botan," She corrected me, offering her name, "And yes. I am the Grim Reaper. You must have very strong awareness to be able to see me in this state."

"Hey, America." Yusuke greeted me with my usual nickname. I didn`t hate the boy, honestly, I didn`t mind him like most of our peers seemed to. He made Keiko happy, and she cared for him quite a bit.

He was alright in my book.

"Urameshi," I nodded at him in recognition, and then turned back to the business that I was personally taking interest in,

"Have you taken him to see Koenma yet?" I blurted, getting straight to the point.

"Er," I could tell this Botan was uncomfortable with the situation, as she wasn`t permitted to talk to living humans like this. The Reikai was supposed to remain secret no matter the circumstances.

"I`m afraid the Prince is very occupied at the moment-"

"I need to see him!" I interrupted her. It had been fourteen long years since I`d gotten to see him. He abandoned me in a Doll House filled with spoiled Americans and hadn`t said a word since.

Yusuke watched the two of us converse with a curious expression on his face.

"Well-" She seemed rather intimidated by my tone, as I could still stare a dagger through anyone, even with my new, softer features.

"I suppose I could make a quick run to the Spirit World, if that`s alright with Yusuke,"

"You`re just gunna leave me here?!" He piped up from beside me, and I held my hand out in front of him, halting him from going on a rant.

"Let me have this moment, Urameshi. Besides," I smiled sweetly at him as I made my way on top of the oar, sidling it with the reaper.

"You`ve got all the time in the world now that you`re dead as a doornail!" I grinned, and waved mockingly at the fuming ghoul-teenager before Botan and I sped off.

My smile never faded the entire ride back to the Spirit World. It felt like I was taking the scenic route back home. Not a thing had changed.

And Koenma was going to crap his little baby diaper when he saw me.

"I need to get back to my assignment," Botan didn`t hesitate to beat it the hell out of there after dropping me at the gate. I nodded, not really caring what her reason to leave was. I was sure that I could have gotten her into trouble just then, but hopefully her boss would understand how intimidating I could be. At least, I hoped he did.

When I was asked what my reason for seeing the Prince was, I replied with what I always had when I made my way to the office, not feeling a hair out of place.

"Ume Kimura," I called back to the gatekeeper, and there was silence for a moment, as if they didn`t quite believe their ears.

The doors opened regardless, and I hauled ass through the cubicles, maneuvering my way around the panicking ogres.

Typical Spirit World. I was surprised they hadn`t started putting nets around the perimeter to keep the office workers from throwing themselves out the windows.

Of course, if they were to die in Spirit World, wouldn`t their souls just resume their duties filing papers as they did before?

I shook the wonder from my head as I approached his office, feeling a queasiness enter my stomach. This could either go one of two ways.

I ignored my doubts and wrapped my shaking fingers around the handle anyway. I had gone too far to go back now with my tail tucked between my legs.

"Did I give you permission to come in?" His obnoxious, toddler form snapped angrily at me as he refused to look up from his paperwork. I felt my right eye involuntarily twitch out of irritation. I was surprised someone hadn`t attempted to assassinate his brat ass every once in a while.

"I was under the impression that I was allowed to bypass permission at this point, Sir." I hissed through my teeth at the toddler. How dare he treat me like this after throwing me to the sharks without a word for fourteen years.

He paused, stopping his furious stamping. He burned a hole in the center of his desk as he refused to look me in the eye.

"I knew this day would come. Come here, Ume."

Instead of obeying that order, I planted my feet in a wide stance, the way that Jillian stood with her feet parted when she played her violin, one foot slightly more forward than the other, angled open.

I felt the familiar surge of energy, the adrenalin rush wash over me as the white light materialized in the palm of my hand. I wrapped my fingers around my weapon of choice, and next reached behind my back to pull a long, slender arrow from out of thin air and took aim.

Puzzled as to why he didn`t hear my footsteps drawing near, Koenma finally looked up from his paperwork, shock phasing over his face.

In that moment, I released the sharp, narrow bit of energy from the bow and it within the blink of an eye, it had pierced through his hat and pinned it to the wall directly behind him.

In an instant, the adult form of Koenma had appeared before me, eyes narrowed,

"I could have you put to death for that kind of mutiny," He hissed from behind his mafuken. I grinned, a little giddy for a moment that I had provoked him. The spirit energy in my hands and pinned through his hat on the wall dissolved as if it had never been there to begin with.

"You think this is funny?" He snarled, spitting on me a little as he spoke. My face twisted a little, disgusted as I wiped the spray from my face before reaching out and plucking the binky from his lips.

"And I suppose you think _this_ is funny?" I stepped back a little so that I could gesture to myself, becoming more grave as the seconds flew past us.

"I though you`d like a little change," He joked, laughing nervously now, defensive. I finally blew my stack, grabbing a fist full of his red cape, yanking it over his head before shoving him to the floor and launching his stupid, slimy pacifier at him.

"A phone call would have been nice!" I shouted, hands flying to my forehead. I grabbed fistfuls of hair and tugged at them as I always did when I was utterly flustered,

"Gah! I can`t believe you have time for punks like _Yusuke Urameshi,"_ I spat his name like it was a disease, like our classmates usually did.

I admit, looking back on those words I felt a little guilty.

"…And you can`t even—Ugh! Koenma!"

"Ume please," I looked down at the Prince as he stood from the cold, hard tiles. I crossed my arms across my chest, sticking my nose in the air. Regaining my composer, I sauntered over to his big, comfy chair and seated myself in it, facing him from behind his desk,

"I`m listening."

He sighed heavily, running a hand through his longer, brown hair.

"Ume I had to transfer your soul to another body, otherwise I would have lost you. I didn`t have a lot of time,"

"That doesn`t explain why you haven`t tried to speak to me. And after so much service,"

"Can you even begin to imagine what Sensui would do if he found out that you were still alive?" I was interrupted, and I stared at the irritated Prince with wide eyes, the thought never having occurred to me.

"I was trying to protect you by severing your ties to Spirit World. I wanted you to live in peace after everything you`ve already been through. It was the least I could do to repay you."

I stayed silent. For some reason, this truth still hurt me. I didn`t feel emancipated by his words.

"As for Yusuke Urameshi, his fate was unfortunate, but I plan on offering him a second chance at life. He can still retain his physical form, and I have a plan for him as my next Spirit Detective."

"And what makes you think he won`t end up the same as Shinobu?" My words tailed his immediately, paranoia taking over my being.

"Sensui was so hell bent on the true definition of justice. Urameshi`s brash, he couldn`t care less. He`ll be content with protecting the human race because he knows what it`s like to be a human more than most."

I leaned forward onto the desk, looking up at him with the most sincerely pleading look that I could muster.

"Please allow me to offer him my assistance." I requested, remaining as cordial as possible. That seemed to go a long way in the Reikai.

"That`d absolutely out of the question, get up." He brushed the request off as if he was turning down a cup of tea. He waved me out of his chair, and I moved to the desk, sitting directly in front of the stacks of piling paperwork that were patiently waiting to be stamped.

"Oh, Koenma, _please-_"

"I said no!"

I jumped at the harshness that had plagued his usual calm and delicate voice. He groaned, leaning back in the chair as I slipped off of the wooden desk. There was no point in arguing, after all, that was insubordination.

"What purpose does it serve, Ume?" He asked, staring at my back as I made my way for the door. I paused my walk of shame, and I thought about turning to look at him. I was afraid that I would be overwhelmed by my emotions, so I decided against looking him in the eyes. I knew that would seal the deal for me, as I felt weakened every time I locked stares with him.

Some sort of chemical malfunction in my brain, something like a glitch in my genetic make up.

"Why do you want to fight so badly? You must have some reason to do these missions of your own free will. I`ve never had to bribe you or order you to dive head first into danger. It`s as if you have a death wish."

I smiled a little, as I would never, ever reveal the true answer to that question, especially to his face. The last thing I wanted to do was make a mockery of myself in front of the ruler of the Reikai. So I fibbed, letting him believe that I probably was crazy after all.

"I just can`t lead a normal life after knowing about all of this." And then I added, "Besides, who can say that they work for the devastatingly handsome Lord Koenma, son of the Ruler of the Spirit World?"

Koenma flushed red, and buried his face into another stack of paper work, pretending to start back up with his endless task of stamping and signing, approving and et cetera.

I watched him work for a moment, missing more than anything the way he flew through every paper without seeming to actually care about whatever information each page bore. He rushed through it all as if he had someplace else to be.

I figured that life to be unbearably dreadful, personally. He missed out on all of the adventure that way, I was surprised they hadn`t hung nets up for him alone as well as the ogres.

"It was good to see you," I offered him these words in hopes of swaying his decision to keep our ties severed. He looked up once more, dropping his pen onto the desk. He pushed himself away from the desk a little and let his head rest on the back of the chair.

"You do realize that if I let you participate in these missions with Yusuke that you risk being found by Sensui, and that I may not be able to save you this time."

I felt my heart take flight as the words spilled out of his mouth, and I found my self leaping over the desk within milliseconds, knocking the chair over, backwards as I the Prince and I rolled onto the hard floor. His cries of pain were drowned out by my fit of giggles, and I locked my arms around his neck as he tried to wiggle free of my embrace.

I was ecstatic, truly happy for what seemed the very first time since I`d been reborn into Elise`s body.

"Wait a minute!" He finally shoved away from me, dusting himself off and scrambling back to his feet. When he had composed himself, he offered a hand to help me up as well, and I graciously accepted it.

"You will be cautious, and do your best to conceal your identity. Do I make myself clear, Miss Kimura?"

"Crystal!" I exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of my feet.

Finally, something to do with my time besides grinding my nose against a text book.

"Great. Now go find someone to escort you back to the Ningenkai. You`ve gotten me off track enough already."

He started for his desk, but I caught his arm one last time before I made my exit, truly elated that I was allowed even a sliver of my previous life.

I didn`t hesitate to wrap my arms around his waist, pulling him to me as I leaned into him for a miniscule moment of affection. He didn`t move, didn`t wrap his arms around me, just stood still and let me really hold him for the first time in thirteen years. Though I was left with feelings unreciprocated, it didn`t matter.

I was just happy to be where I belonged.

/

**Thanks so much for reading! If you were unaware of my other two side-stories, they are titled _The Girl`s A Straight-Up Hustler & The Quintessential State of Dreaming._**

**Let me know if there`s anything you think I could improve on, anything you feel like you wanted more of of and anything you wanted less of. Also, I`ve already started working on QSOD so expect an update soon.**

**Thanks,**

**Holly**


	3. Off to The Races

"This is a disaster!" I watched as the toddler ruler beat his forehead off the desk. I rolled my eyes, having never met a more dramatic male in my life.

"Would you relax already?" I yanked him back by his collar to keep him from giving himself a concussion. Who knows the amount of brain cells he`s battered over the years of hyperventilating over trying to rule things that were completely out of his control.

"You`re going to give yourself a hemorrhoid."

"My _job_ is going to give me a hemorrhoid." He whined, "And Yusuke isn`t going to be very much use."

He sighed, but far too over dramatic to be a real sigh. I was good at detecting these after growing up with Jillian for the past fourteen years.

"My father`s going to throw an apocalypse."

"King En**e**ma," I spat sarcastically, always having enjoyed the nickname I`d given the King, as poop humor was first and foremost the very best type of humor,

"He doesn`t have to know."

I smiled reassuringly at the panicking Prince before proceeding to pick up the files he had knocked onto the floor amidst his tantrum. He didn`t say anything for a moment, just watched me carefully put everything back in order for him.

I set the files back on his desk in a neat stack for him to go through later and either approve or deny.

"He`ll find out. He always does."

"Well if he does, we`ll have everything solved by then." I pointed out to him, as he had clearly lost all faith in me as a detective. He`d forgotten who he was working with.

"I`ll be in the library if you need me."

He nodded, and it didn`t take him thirty seconds to resume panicking over the stolen artifacts.

I shut the doors behind me, catching one last glimpse at his fit. I wondered if his father was as bad as he claimed he was. Something had to have scared him to that point.

But Koenma was no coward, he could stand his ground given the circumstances. He had proved it before and he would time and time again. He was more mature than one would assume, though it didn`t help that he portrayed himself as an infantilized wreck.

Yusuke with his banter and disrespect for the Prince was only one of many who thought of Lord Koenma this way. I was sure none of them would be capable of doing his job, though.

It was kind of like listening to James Beckett complain about the President in the states. He was constantly bitching and whining about what an awful job he was doing, but James wouldn`t know the first thing about running a country. Most people don`t, yet they open their mouths to complain.

The politics of the Reikai were just as brutal, and King Enma let his son take the fall for most of the decisions made in the Reikai. If anyone was a coward, it was the King. I had always reserved suspicious feelings toward the ruler.

Shaking the bitter thoughts from my head, I attempted to figure out the case I`d just been assigned. It was blatantly obvious that Yusuke wouldn`t do any research at all before diving head first into the crossfire. He had already set out to find the perpetrators, as if looking for them blindly was going to do him an ounce of good.

I began reaching for overstuffed file cabinets, holding information regarding every infamous thief in the Makai, as the safe had reeked of demonic energy when it had been found empty.

It was quite an accomplishment to make it past the kind of security that the artifacts had been under. It would require the minds of only the most elite.

That being the deceased Youko Kurama. His file was the largest of them all, holding the record high of crimes in the Makai. He worked with other thieves, but quite a few of his raids had been executed on his own.

I`d heard stories of the great thief while working as a detective fourteen years before. I was still in my first body when I`d heard the rumors circulating of his death.

Sure enough, the date in which he had been finally hunted down by a bounty hunter was recorded in the back of his file. Though something about his death was different from the way the others were recorded in the files.

Youko Kurama`s soul was never escorted to the Reikai after he died, in fact, it disappeared altogether. This was peculiar, as he had never been truly pronounced dead by the Spirit World, but there were no records regarding his existence since the day he was hunted down.

Could it be that Youko had gone into hiding, fooling all existence into believing he had died? Was he waiting all these years to take on the Spirit World in his greatest heist yet?

I snorted, that was impossible. Maybe the Spirit World had lost the last part of the file. Everyone knew Youko was dead and gone for the last fifteen years. Koenma had transferred his soul the same way he`d done for me, there was no way he could be hiding out anywhere. The Reikai knew where to find someone when they wanted to.

Which was why I`d lingered on Shinobu`s file when I`d come across it, on the record for stealing Chapter Black after retrieving it and not returning it to Koenma. No, instead Sensui decided to use it to torture humans into feeling the desire to eliminate their own race, a fate I had narrowly avoided myself.

I put Kurama`s file back in the drawer and then slipped Shinobu`s into my leather messenger bag. No one would miss it for the time being, not with all of the commotion over the stolen artifacts. Though my thoughts lingered on Sensui for a moment, what if he had stolen them?

The sword he could use to turn humans into demon slaves, but Shinobu wouldn`t have a use for demon slaves. He wanted to commit a genocide of the highest caliber. He had no need for the artifacts.

Except maybe the Forlorn Hope. Yes, that could very well have been it. He could wish for the destruction of humanity and his soul would be taken in order to grant his wish. But was Shinobu that determined to wipe out humanity to sacrifice his own life?

The answer was obvious to me as soon as I asked myself the question.  
Yes, he was.

**Chapter 3: Off To The Races**

**And we`re off to the races, places**  
**Ready, set, the gate is down and now we're goin' in.**

"Elise," I looked over to the front door, my attention drawn to the crown of long, golden hair that had just barged into the loft. She slipped her shoes off and looked back up at me, cheeks rosy and her straight, white teeth flashing from behind cherry red lips.

"Get ready, we`re going out. Hey Keiko."

Keiko looked at me with a quizzical brow, and then back at my "older" sister, Jillian.

"Where are we going now?" I groaned from the sofa that set before the large TV cabinet. She started stripping out of her dance clothes right there in the living room, in front of the wall of glass that looked down on the town below. If there was one person that I knew that just did not care about being exposed, it was her. She walked around buck naked more than anyone I`d known in this lifetime and the next.

She started folding her sweatshirt as she stood before the two of us in her underwear, mischievous grin never faltering the entire time.

"We`re going out tonight, there`s going to be a bonfire, and a ton of booze," She stopped and looked at Keiko, pausing,

"Oh dear, we`re going to have to fix that hair."

Keiko`s face flushed red, as she had just recently trimmed her hair after singeing it when she`d been trapped in a house fire fiasco a few weeks before.

Yusuke`s body had been in there, and his soul hadn`t been transferred back in. He was left in his burning apartment, unconscious. Keiko had bravely gone in to drag him out. And to think that Koenma was going to use his sorry ass as the next detective. To think that _I _would take orders from _him, _the boy that needed his ordinary, human girlfriend to save his ass.

But I was proud of her. Yukimura was a courageous, smart girl. I never felt much of the age gap when I spent time with her. She was my closest friend as Elise Beckett. Ume Kimura had never really had any friends, which was also why Keiko had such a large role in my life. Our relationship was simple, easygoing. I could relax around her, more so than I could my own sister.

"Some of us made plans, already," I told her flatly. Jillian was just going to poo poo any of my plans anyway. She was already gabbing to Keiko about how she was going to fix her hair for her. I just wanted to go hunt down Sensui as soon as I had fulfilled my obligation to hang out with Yukimura for a little while. She was upset over Yusuke hanging out with some girl, and I wasn`t going to just leave her bumming all alone in her parent`s diner.

The one downfall Keiko had was her adoration for Jillian. God, everyone was always up Jillian`s ass all the time.

Who was I kidding? Half the time I was up her ass too. It couldn`t be helped. Jillian`s spirit was sociable and loving… if you were on her good side. She had these eyes that tended to make you feel like the only person in the room worth looking at when she was noticing you.

"How`s Yusuke doing?" She asked Keiko as she plugged the curling iron into the wall, all too excited to be going to this party.

I supposed that I would let the two have their fun. What with Keiko and Yusuke`s constant drama and Shiori-san being ill in the hospital, the two needed some form of release. Usually the parties Jillian attended were held by upperclassmen, senior boys that didn`t typically allow the underclassmen near their social events. We were considered _lucky to go with her_.

These of course, were Jillian`s words.

"He`s a pain," Keiko rolled her eyes. She focused her attention down on one of the fashion magazines that Jill had left sitting on the coffee table.

"All boys are a pain," Jillian answered her, wrapping a lock of soft, brown hair around the barrel of the iron,

"That`s just life, I guess," She continued, and I noticed the change in her expression. Her eyes, usually vibrant and playful when around company, had darkened and I noticed they were tinged red in the corners. Jillian had been crying only moments before she`d walked in the door. I probably hadn`t noticed because the way Jillian looked when she was sad graced her face like any other expression.

Could it be that someone had possibly captured Jillian`s heart? This was unheard of. Jillian was notorious for crushing the hearts of every boy at Meiou, and she claimed that there were no exceptions. No boy in the entire school was worthy of her love, only worthy of being played with every once in a while. She knew nothing but shameless flirting.

So how was it that her face held that sad, longing expression that I`d seen on Keiko`s when she had reoccurring thoughts of Yusuke Urameshi? That innocent, frustrated look that longed for the attention of a certain someone to just notice her the way she wanted to be noticed.

I was completely baffled as to who it could have been.

"Oh please, Jillian," Keiko gawked, "You've never had a boy problem in your life."

I watched carefully as Jillian`s lips turned into a bitter smile, bunching in the corner of her mouth as if she`d been sucking on something sour. There was something bothering her, rather some_one_ bothering her. She inhaled deeply before letting out a chuckle, shoving her feelings down deep inside of her.

"True!" She let out a fake laugh. She`d fooled the younger girl, but it was blatantly obvious to me. It was the same laugh she would let out when she was trying to humor some of the geeky boys in her class when they attempted to make her laugh.

The way Jillian had tried to rush us out the door all dressed to the nines lead me to believe that this boy would be at the party. I`d had the strangest hunch growing inside of me ever since she`s said those words to Keiko that I was going to find out exactly who had finally ensnared her.

/

"Where did Jillian go?" Keiko was shouting in my ear so that I could hear her over the loud pop music blaring from the speakers. We were surrounded by at least a hundred drunken idiots that had piled outside of the ranch that had been empty of it`s owners for the weekend.

"If you find her let me know," I raised my voice so that she could hear me, but she only pointed to her ear in reply, signaling that it was too loud for her to hear.

I grabbed her by the wrist and lead her up the steps and through the sliding door, into what looked like a kitchen and a den. It was slightly quieter inside.

There was a group of girls standing around with drinks in their hand, giggling about something. I recognized one of them, a girl that had played in orchestra with my sister. She noticed us immediately, gesturing at us to the group she had been talking to, motioning for us to come closer.

"This is Jillian`s sister!" She told them, an excited smile gracing her soft lips, "I`m Maya! You remember me, don`t you, Ellie?"

I nodded, smiling back at her. Honestly, Jillian had too many "friends" for me to bother keeping up with. I had other things to occupy myself with.

"You girls just missed out on the funniest thing that`s happened all night," The girl across from Maya giggled to the other three girls that had been standing around,

"Your sister just told Nagasawa that she needed to put the chopsticks down! She was so pissed!" The group burst out into a chorus of laughter at the memory.

I didn`t laugh, petty drama was so unattractive coming from Jillian. Just as I had said she could make you feel like the only person worth noticing, she could also make everyone view you as the tiniest person left in the universe.

It was Nagasawa`s own fault, though. She had been after Jillian`s reputation for years and all but begged on her hands and knees for Jillian to humiliate her.

"Do you know where she is?" Keiko interrupted the laughter, and the girls looked at each other, smiling at each other, debating whether or not they should tell us.

"She was making her way down the hall with an upperclassmen, but I wouldn`t go looking for her right now." Maya answered me, and she threw an amused look back to the other girls, offering one of them a knowing wink.

I was about to open my mouth and ask them which hallways to that we could just get the hell out of the God-forsaken place, but I was interrupted by the sound of a male voice shouting as a door across the den slid open, and Jillian rounded the corner, a bundle of clothes in her arms.

"I was never here!" She shouted as she flung the clothes at Keiko before booking it outside and into the group of people surrounded the bonfire.

"Oh!" Keiko`s mouth dropped as she noticed the pair of boxers sitting atop the pile. The older girls burst into a new fit of giggles just as an angry, naked boy ran into the room, holding a pillow in front of his nether regions. She immediately threw the clothes back at the naked and provoked jock before hiding herself behind me.

"Nice outfit, Nadare." One of the girls snorted through her laughter, and he sneered at her in return.

"Where the fuck is she?" He turned and shouted at us. Keiko whimpered from behind me, but Jillian`s group of friends just snorted at him,

"Leave them alone, they don`t know anything." Maya barked at him, racing to defend Keiko and I. Most likely on Jillian`s behalf.

The drunken fool shouted in anger before punching a hole through the wall. Everyone in the room immediately silenced, just staring at him as he tried to pull his fist back through the dry wall.

"Oh my God, how drunk are you?" Another girl shouted over at him in her nasally voice.

"Looks like another moron just got trolled by Jillian," I turned to Keiko, grabbing her arm and leading her back outside

"Do you think she…?" Keiko asked just before I opened the door to the catastrophe that was going on outside.

"Please," I spat. Keiko should know better to ask questions like that. If Jillian wanted to have sex with anyone, that slob would have been at the bottom of her list. Besides, if Jillian was having sex, she wouldn`t have been so indiscrete about it. Everyone knew that Jillian was just a tease.

I slid the door open and stepped outside, noticing that a rather large brawl had started. Jill was no where in sight, and I had a gut feeling that she was being swallowed by the crowd. And in her buzzed state, it didn`t matter how crafty she was. Jillian had no fighting skill to lay claim to, and she was going to get hurt.

"Keiko," I looked back at the girl that was frozen, in awe of the fist fight. She looked at me with her mouth hanging open, completely confused as to how the part had turned into an all out war in only a few minutes.

"Go inside and tell Maya to call Minamino. Do you hear me?"

She nodded firmly, her eyes holding the determination to complete the task at hand. I saw in her the same girl that would delve into a burning building to save Urameshi.

I shoved my way around the group of older students, trying to find Jillian in the crowd. Fists began to fly, and I had to watch myself to avoid a black eyes. Finally fed up, I began to push back on the others, shoving several of the larger boys to the ground as I tried to step around them in search of Jillian. That girl was always getting me into this bullshit.

I was whipping my head around in circles looking for her. There was so much commotion that I was finally getting too annoyed with trying to find the needle in the haystack.

So I started taking some of them out, knocking them to the ground with blows to the stomachs, flipping some over my shoulder, just trying to keep some of the testosterone down for a few moments so that I could find my sister so we could just get the hell out of there.

But she was no where to be found whenever I was looking for her. Which is why I had Keiko call Minamino. I`d had a feeling this would happen. We were miles out from civilization, far into the country side and Jillian could have wandered anywhere. I always feared this whenever she went out, she was too impulsive. She acted on a whim, lured by amusement at every turn. More of a handful than what an older sister should be. Why couldn`t I have been born into Keiko`s family?

I had seen her with my own eyes leave and make her way to the bonfire outside, so how could she be missing? Honestly the girl was like a toddler! You could only find Jillian when she wanted to be found.

When I had finally pushed myself out of the brawl, I dusted myself and looked back at the bonfire and the people surrounding. Behind them was nothing but a dark forest, and I feared that my sister had disappeared somewhere outside of the party.

And then, I felt a tug on my wrist, and I felt relief wash over me.

"Thank god, Jillian," I exclaimed and turned to see that the person that had grabbed me by the wrist was not my sister, but instead, the blue-haired pilot from the Reikai.

Botan.

"Come with me," Her voice was frantic, "Yusuke`s found them."

I shifted my gaze back to the bonfire, wondering where the hell Jill could have been. I knew it was a bad idea to leave without her, and ditch out on Keiko as well.

"My sister and Keiko are here," I tried to explain to her, but she already had her oar materializing in the palm of her free hand.

"They`ll be fine, Elise, now hop on!" There was no argument.

If Sensui was behind this then I was bound and determined to fight him this very instant. Jillian and Keiko would be fine. I had her send for Minamino. He could babysit them for me for five minutes, he was used to it anyway.


	4. Heroes and Thieves

I was impatiently waiting for Yusuke to wake up after his run in with Gouki. He had tired himself by the time Botan and I had arrived on the scene. Gouki fled when Botan put up the façade that we were a group angry villagers looking for a place to rest. She projected her voice around the area and attempted to lower it several octaves to sound like a gruff man while I stayed a couple feet behind trying not to beat my head off of a tree in second hand embarrassment.

Don`t mistake that for being weak or frightened. I didn`t need to hide behind the pilot, as I could have easily taken Gouki out with a single arrow, despite the thickness of his skin. He was weaker, probably around a lower D class demon. I had taken out A class in my lifetime, and something told me that the other two perpetrators were much stronger and more intellectual than Gouki.

But Yusuke needed to learn that he couldn`t run off on these missions without me. The idiot was going to go and get himself killed. He had no training, no strategy in taking out these thieves. If one of them had been Shinobu, he was lucky enough to escape with his life.

Yusuke`s mother, Atsuko, had been folding towels as Botan and I waited in the living room for Sleeping Beauty to awaken. Meanwhile, Botan filled me in on who our thieves were.

"Gouki has a criminal record, but I`m afraid the other two have no records with the Spirit World. Hiei is rumored to be extremely vicious, but no one has even heard of Kurama."

My ears burned at the name. Kurama… I`d heard it before. Still, I was disappointed Sensui wasn`t behind the heist. I would have to do more research trying to find him.

Kurama, now where had I heard that name…? I thought back to the files I`d gone through while I was looking up Sensui`s. The greatest thief in the history of the Makai-

"You don`t think there`s any relation to Youko Kurama, do you?" I asked, keeping my voice low as Atsuko passed us as she entered into Yusuke`s bedroom to check on him once again. Botan laughed at the suggestion.

"Oh no, Youko Kurama has been dead for years!" She waved the idea off with another giggle, "Oh, Elise, you`re such a sweetheart. You really did you studying!"

I sighed, trying not to look as irritated as I was. I couldn`t help but feel like I was being looked down on by Yusuke and Botan. They weren`t including me, and they talked to me like I was a little girl.

Unless of course, Koenma had asked them to leave me out on purpose…

"Botan, can I ask you something?" Her pink eyes widened at the concern that filled my voice. She cocked her head to the side, curiously.

"What is it, Elise?"

"Ah! Yusuke! You`re up, are you alright?!"

Botan and I both looked to Yusuke`s room, where Atsuko was standing in the doorway. She disappeared inside as Yusuke`s voice filled our ears,

"I think-"

There was a thump and a yelp as I assumed Atsuko was punishing her son for getting himself into danger.

Botan and I quickly scrambled to our feet to see the boy.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Heroes and Thieves**

**If you could only see the beast you've made of me  
I held it in, but now it seems you've set it running free**

"So how`d you find me? I didn`t even think I knew where I was."

"Nothing too special," Botan giggled as she held up what appeared to be a wrist watch-turned compass, "I just used this demon compass to find Gouki."

So that`s how she`d known. I needed to start catching up with technology before it left me behind altogether. The nineties were leaving me in the dust already. The Spirit World had come out with a tracking device for demons, how clever.

Yusuke took the compass from her and looked it over thoughtfully,

"This will make finding them a lot easier, but I think my real problem comes once they`re in my face. Gouki was a lot stronger than I thought."

"Well maybe you shouldn`t have gone in there without backup, moron!" I scolded him as I sat myself on the foot of the bed, crossing my arms,

"I saw you at school yesterday, you could have easily informed me. You forget that I`m your teammate and I don`t appreciate being left in the dark, especially when I could help you."

"Gah, Elise look…" Yusuke scratched his head, clenching his teeth together,

"I don`t know how to tell you this, but," He hesitated, looking over to Botan for help. I looked back at the pilot, who only shook her head at Yusuke in disapproval.

"Spit it out, Urameshi." I growled at the boy, who drew back a little as I leaned in towards him with a violent demeanor. He panicked, and confessed the truth that I had been anticipating the entire time.

"Koenma told me to leave you out of this one."

"He _what_?!" I shouted, though I had presumed this was the case. I got to my feet, jabbing a finger at Botan,

"Then why did you come get me?!"

"Regardless of what Koenma said, these next two thieves will be even stronger, and we`re going to need Elise`s help." Botan defended me, casting a disdained look in Yusuke`s direction before continuing, "There`s another catch. Koenma says you`ve only got one week."

Botan and Yusuke turned grim.

"Why does that not surprise me?" He grumbled, looking dejectedly to his feet as Botan slid down to the floor. I wouldn`t lie, if these other two demons were the brains of the operation, we would have more trouble than expected. They were capable of taking out the guards protecting the King`s vault.

"I should be encouraging, but…"

"I know, the odds aren`t good."

Our attention was captured by the newscast that Atsuko was watching in the living room, frightening phrases projecting from the speakers, words that angered me to the core.

"_Four children from this quiet, foresting town have fallen comatose in the last three hours. Doctors are hesitant to pin a cause on their conditions, but say it is unlike any disease they`ve encountered before_. _Town officials are advising families to stay inside_."

I grit my teeth together and looked back to Yusuke to see that he too was reflecting my rage.

"Sounds like Gouki`s having his lunch."

"In the past he`s taken souls more slowly," Botan explained, "With the Orb of Baast it`s easier, he can take all he wants."

"If there souls are digested, those children won`t even get to see an afterlife," I added fuel to the fire that Yusuke and I shared, clenching my fists tightly at my sides. I would die before letting that happen. Images of Jillian playing in the back yard flashed through my head, when she was a toddler.

"The souls he eats," Yusuke asked, "How long until they`re digested?"

"We have a window of eight to twelve hours," I looked to Botan, who confirmed this,

"One day at the most."

"Fine." Yusuke grabbed his shirt off the bed and threw it on.

"Are you coming with me?" I nodded in reply to the boy, who was fueled by pure determination.

"What are you going to do?" Botan fretted, "What can you do?"

"Yusuke may not have healed completely yet," I pointed out to the girl, "But I still have a spring of energy I haven`t used in years."

"And I haven`t used my Spirit Gun today," Yusuke extended his arm, holding his hand like a pistol,

"This time I won`t let him win." He turned from Botan to me and added,

"Gouki`s mine."

"Yusuke-"

"Listen, America," He raised his voice, standing up straight so that he could intimidate me,

"Those kids won`t even get the chance to be ghosts if we let him win, and I want to be the one to save them. It`s my fault he got away with the Orb last night, and I won`t let him pull a fast one on me again."

Brown eyes held a haunting vengeance in them, and I couldn`t tell the kid he couldn`t take the next fight. It was personal to him, and I thought about if Gouki were Shinobu; I wouldn`t want him to take my fight.

I nodded, letting him know that I understood his request.

We were out the door in seconds, following Botan`s wristwatch compass. We managed to track Gouki down on the outskirts of the park on Grey Block, just as he was stealing the soul from a small girl, with a cute hair bow. More images from Elise`s childhood flashing behind my eyes. Our mother used to dress Jill and I like that girl, we always looked so cute. I immediately bristled at the sight of the fallen child, and Yusuke held his arm out in front of me, reminding me to stand down.

"Gouki!" Yusuke called out to him, stepping in front of me and initiating the confrontation. The demon turned to us, a look of irritation wrenching his ugly face. I looked around for the child`s mother, but there was no one in sight as Yusuke and Gouki made their way into covering of the surrounding forest.

When we were out of the park, Gouki transformed from his human-like form into that of a monster, with horns protruding from his forehead and skin turning hard and dark. Drooling, with an under bite, his fangs stuck out from the bottom half of his jaw, revealing just how uncivilized he really was. I grimaced at the sight of him, never really getting used to some of the lookers I`d encountered in the past.

I noticed that Yusuke looked intimidated for a moment, shaking in his vibrant, green uniform. All fear was abandoned in the next moment as he charged the demon, fist at the ready. As soon as his hand met with the surprisingly unattractive rock hard abs of Gouki, I could hear Yusuke`s knuckles fracturing. He pulled away, cradling his hand as Gouki cackled in his low, gruff voice.

The monster charged back now, and Yusuke and I both dodged his massive fist as he punched clean through the trunk of a tree, sending it sailing almost directly into Yusuke`s pride and glory. He stared wide eyed at the tree trunk piercing the ground just between his thighs before getting to his feet and hoisting it up from the grass.

Yusuke charged the demon again, plunging the broken tree into his gut. It splintered and broke apart at the end without leaving a single scratch on Gouki`s rough skin.

If only Yusuke would let me fire an arrow at him, I thought to myself, it was sharp enough to pierce like a needle through a pincushion. I could have saved the boy a lot of bruises if he`d only asked for my help.

I watched the detective roll across the forest floor, catching himself on his injured hand and grunting in pain. I didn`t want to watch the boy get beaten around any longer, I`d had enough of watching him suffer.

Gouki kicked the boy, sending him flying through the air again.

As he began to stomp the boy repeatedly, I decided to intervene. I felt the familiar surge of energy form in my left hand in the shape of a bow, and I reached back to form an arrow with my right. I took my aim, feeling the invisible tension the bow was putting on my arrow.

I released the ray of light, sending it flying into the back of the leg Gouki was using to stomp Yusuke out with.

To my horror, the beam did not pierce his skin.

I`d misjudged him-he was thicker than I`d thought.

He grunted in pain as he pulled the sliver of spirit energy out of his calf, letting it dissolve as it fell to the ground.

"Who`s the girl?" He growled, and Yusuke attempted to divert his attention, to no avail. I dodged one of Gouki`s fists as I dove between his legs and made my way to Yusuke, who was still lying on the ground, immobile.

"This way I can eat you both!" Gouki grinned excitedly.

"I told you to leave it to me." Yusuke struggled to speak as I pulled him to his feet, just in time for Gouki to grab Yusuke by the head and lift him into the air.

"Starting with my top offender."

He opened his mouth to cackle again, and was surprised to find that Yusuke had been holding onto a tree branch the entire time as he lodged it vertically into the demon`s jaws.

"It`s about time!" Yusuke shouted angrily, "I was waiting for you to open up your big, fat mouth!"

Gouki watched in horror as Yusuke took aim, and I cracked a smile. I should have given Urameshi more credit. He was a strategist at the last minute.

"The skin on you monsters may be hard as a rock, but I bet your insides aren't!" He extended a glowing finger, about to blast the demon in the mouth,

"Monster, meet Spirit Gun!"

The flare sent Gouki flat on his back, and Yusuke crumbling to the ground in exhaustion. I caught him as he fell, letting him lean his weight on me.

"Man," He sighed, staring at the fallen demon in relief. The both of us watched as the souls escaped from Gouki`s body one by one. We counted to five simultaneously before smiling.

"You got them all, Urameshi." I reassured before patting him on the back. He chuckled,

"Yeah, I guess we did."

I reached for the orb and handed it to Yusuke, repositioning his arm around my shoulder so that I could support him.

"I nearly lost my head to get one artifact back," I watched worry plague his boyish features,

"I`m scared to think what two more will take."

/

Uptown was packed at twilight as the two of us made our way, slowly through the crowds. Yusuke had refused my help after we`d made our way into the public. I let him hobble on a stick a couple feet in front of me, watching carefully with each step that he struggled to take. I let him keep his pride without teasing him. After all, he had just saved the lives of five children. He was allowed his stupid pride.

We both froze as the demon compass began to beep drastically as another demonic energy closed in on us. We shared a worried look, knowing that this next demon wouldn`t be nearly as easy to defeat as Gouki. If I was lucky, his skin would be much softer.

Yusuke and I stood with our backs to each other as we searched for our next offender.

"Where is this guy?" I asked after scanning through the crowds, not sensing any energy coming from the people heading past me. We were screwed if they attacked, as Yusuke was completely useless and I had no clue who I was up against. I`d always had Sensui at my side to back me up, and now my only partner was wounded beyond any use for the evening.

"There," Yusuke spoke, "It`s Kurama." I turned, looking into the crowd before me. I couldn`t see anyone standing out, and I looked back at Yusuke to make sure.  
"Where?"

"The red head," He nodded directly ahead of us, and I looked back up to meet the familiar green eyes of Shuichi Minamino, who was staring directly back at us.

No, no, no. Nope, this wasn`t real life.

"Don`t be so tense," His soft voice didn`t seem out of place in the situation, and I believed that he was as much of a demon now as I had always believed him to be human. You couldn`t trust anyone anymore. How had I never been able to sense his you-ki? Even now there was nothing.

My mouth hung open. I had dined with the enemy many times before. The boy my father had trusted Jillian with for the last how many years was a monster? Though, if he had wanted to, he could have killed Jillian a long time ago. I narrowed my eyes at him, and I knew he felt the betrayal I was feeling. I had always been sort of fond of the boy, always thought well of him and his kind mother, who had cared for Jillian far more than our father ever had.

"Shuichi?" Was the only thing I could manage to speak as I was still frozen in shock.

"You two know each other?" Yusuke`s eyes flickered back to me suspiciously. I kept my glare on Shuichi, sufficiently pissed off at not only him, but at myself for not realizing it sooner. This was the reason Spirit World had no records of Youko Kurama dying. He had escaped and placed his soul in a human, as Koenma had done with mine. Wolves in sheep`s clothing.

We were more alike than I`d ever wanted to be.

"He`s a friend of my sister." I spat the answer a little coldly at Yusuke, as it wasn`t his fault that I was in that situation. I decided to call him out right then and there,

"And here I had convinced myself the infamous Kurama was deceased."

Green eyes made their way back from Yusuke`s to mine, and I noticed the threatened look he was giving me. He knew that I knew his secret, and he was uncomfortable with it. I had probably just sealed my own fate, for if he was wise, he would kill me before I could spread that kind of valuable information.

"I have a request."

Yusuke looked back at me, silently asking if we should trust him. Of course, I wouldn`t trust him knowing what I know now, but I thought of Jillian. She was still at the Minamino`s after I`d left her in Kurama`s care the night before. Maybe he was holding her captive.

"A request?"

"I`ll return the treasure in another two to three days. I`ll come find you then. Elise will know where to find me. I assure you this is not a hoax." He wasn`t out of character for Shuichi Minamino, in fact, I was sure that Shuichi hadn`t ever existed, as Elise never really had. Maybe she was inside somewhere, but I had never heard her utter a word.

Trust him, something in the back of my mind called out to me.

"He`s telling the truth," I spoke up, though uncertain. Did I really owe him my trust just because he had taken care of my reckless sister? One last question begged on the tip of my tongue, and I had to know,

"Does Jillian know?"

"She doesn`t suspect a thing. However, I managed to pull a suspicious looking file away from her last night."

My breath stuck in my throat as I looked down. I had completely forgotten about my bag with Sensui`s file in it. I should have known that Jill would have gone snooping. I narrowed my eyes once again at Shuichi.

"I appreciate that," I paused, reminding myself that he wasn`t Shuichi Minamino anymore. At least not to me,

"Kurama."

/

The office was still a mess when I made my way past the ogres scrambling to organize the paperwork that was ever beyond their control. I had allowed myself to calm down a little before going to talk to Koenma about going behind my back and telling Yusuke to keep me in the dark about our missions. It made me wonder if that was the reason Sensui had always gone off on his own. Maybe it was some sort of code because I was a girl, or something stupid like that.

I found him passed out on his desk, with his paperwork piling up. I found myself once again feeling sorry for him.

"Oh, Koenma," I groaned, picking the toddler prince up and cradling him against my shoulder.

"I`m so dead, Ume." His words, though muffled by my shirt, still made me chortle. King Enma wasn`t anything but fire and brimstone when angered, but it wasn`t the end of the world. He wouldn`t kill his own son.

"Relax, it`s just your ass." I couldn`t speak without laughing, "You really are such a big baby sometimes. How old are you, exactly?"

"Too old for this shit." Was his reply as I rocked back and forth, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. I found that this calmed him more than anything.

"Sensui`s file is missing." I stopped short at these words. How, on top of everything else going on, was he able to have his binky so far into my business?

"I borrowed it." I lied. No, I straight up stole that file from the archives. I didn`t realize he was keeping tabs on me. I didn`t plan on returning the file until all was said and done.

"I had to do my own research," I went on, "Considering no one else was going to give me any information regarding our thieves."

"Yusuke could have handled it."

"That`s such bullshit, Koenma." I pulled him away from me, holding him at arms length so that I could glare at him properly.

"Why do you treat me like a china doll? You forget that the longer I go without practicing my technique, the weaker I get. How am I ever going to fight Sensui?"  
"You aren`t going to fight Sensui!" He shouted, binky still staying in place as his mouth opened three times its size. I could feel the electricity between our stares as we tried to out-glare the other.

"I didn`t give you that body so that you could get yourself killed _again._ Do you realize how tiring it is on the soul to transfer bodies like that? I don`t know if you would survive the next one."

"I`d rather die knowing I was trying to avenge myself." I placed him on his desk.

"I`d rather you not die at all." He grumbled, starting back on his paperwork. I frowned as I watched him stamp away again, frustrated. I grabbed a stamp from the inkpad and helped him. We worked together in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again.

"You`ve always been so helpful, even when you weren`t needed. You always find a way to make things better."

I couldn`t help but grin at the words. That was just who I was. I helped those that I cared about. It wasn`t work to me, it was what I had to do to sleep at night. I had to be …productive.

"That`s all that matters." I answered, stamping at another paper. Koenma sighed, irritated at the fact that he couldn`t change who I was. I wasn`t bothered, as things had always been this way between us.

"You forgot to initial that last page, Koenma."

"Wah!"


	5. Sweet Dreams

"Yukimura, be sure to let Urameshi know that I`d like to speak with him. He`s the only student that has yet to turn in his book report that was due yesterday."

If only the staff knew how hard Yusuke had it outside the walls of the school. This place was merely a playpen for the boy, who was just a few days shy of fourteen years. What significance did a book report make among all of the other missed assignments, anyway?  
I myself had rushed to complete the assignment after the retrieval of the second artifact only the night before.

"Will you wait for me, Elise?" Keiko`s shy voice asked as I stood from my desk.

"I shouldn`t be long. I think I know where Yusuke is."

I nodded, knowing as well as she did that Yusuke was lounging on the rooftop by himself, being the loner that he is. He was never really big into drugs or alcohol, he was different in that aspect. He just liked the peace. What was so wrong with that, anyway?

I nodded at Keiko, letting her know that I`d be waiting at the gate whenever she was ready to go.

"Thanks, Elise, …You`re a good friend." She smiled a genuine smile across the room at me before disappearing into the hallway, turning right so that she could make her way to the stairs. I smiled to myself as her words played over in my head. Aside from Jillian, Keiko had been the best friend I`d ever had, counting both of my lives.

"Take care, Beckett-chan," Mr. Takanaka bid me farewell as I exited the classroom. He was one of the more reasonable teachers we had at the Junior High. I had more respect for him than most. He believed in Yusuke and all of the other students, didn`t believe any of us were failures.

Sometimes I truly feel blessed to have been placed in this life, I thought to myself as I neared the gate, waiting for Keiko to finish reprimanding Yusuke for not turning his report in. My mind wandered to my sister, wondering what she was doing with her afternoon.

I hadn`t been too keen on her spending time with Shuichi lately, not after finding out his secrets.

Not to mention the danger he had involved Yusuke in the night before.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Sweet Dreams**

**This is a gift, it comes with a price**

**Who is the lamb and who is the knife?**

As soon as Kurama turned onto Satou Block, I knew the reason why he had stolen the artifact. I had been to the ICU many times before to see Minamino Shiori with my sister. We had always brought gifts with us; Paper cranes, magazines, and cosmetics that Jillian had picked up specifically for the bed-ridden woman to play with.

This time I couldn`t stand to enter the hospital room, for I hadn`t brought anything for Shiori. And how could I bear to smile and exchange pleasant words with the mother of the criminal I had hunted down to drag back to the Reikai?

Not that there would be anything left to arrest save a dead body when he had put the Forlorn Hope into action. I couldn`t begin to imagine the devastation Shiori would be in. If the illness wasn`t killing her fast enough, the grief over her beloved and adored son would be too much for the woman to handle.

Surely Kurama had known that his mother would much rather take his place in the afterlife. For a cold-blooded, thousand-something year old demon, this was a rather selfless act. Though I was certain there was no outcome for what he was planning where at least one of them was dead and the other miserable.

Shuichi had dragged us to the roof, and I followed the demon and my teammate begrudgingly, knowing there was no hope for Shiori`s health without the mirror, but also that her happiness would suffer greatly. I listened to Kurama explain to Yusuke about how he had taken possession of the fetus that was still forming in Shiori`s womb, merging his soul with the baby and becoming Shuichi Minamino. He had been wounded, and he had escaped the Makai, slipping right past the barrier unnoticed by the Reikai.

My mind wandered as he went on to explain how attached he`d grown to his mother, feeling indebted to her. I understood his feelings more than anyone else possibly could have. I thought of Christina Beckett, my "foster" mother. Once so loving, filled with happiness and adoration for Jillian and I. She dressed the two of us like her dolls and always took us everywhere with her, as our father had always been gone.

She was the exact definition of what a mother should be. She was our Shiori Minamino, gentle, patient and kind. I was very much like Shuichi when it came to her; cold and distant.

After her accident, a flip switched inside of me, cutting off the even flow of bitterness I had let flow through my veins. My mother lost her mind after her car accident, the brain damage rendering her completely unable to fend her herself. She didn`t remember who I was, didn`t remember Jillian or our father. The only good outcome for her was that she had forgotten James Jr., our infant brother who had not survived the accident.

Our father left her immediately after the doctors verified that she would never be normal again, taking Jillian away with him.

Mother and I moved in with her parents, my grandparents, who had been living in Osaka at the time. I cared for our mother after that, making sure she ate, took her on walks around the neighborhood, and even put her to bed. I would find her sleep walking, falling asleep in the refrigerator and on the toilet. I had taken care of her as if she were my own child. She wasn`t sad about Dad leaving her, she didn`t remember. She finally accepted and remembered that I was her daughter, but she never really remembered Jillian, though she did speak her name in her sleep here and there.

When my foster grandparents moved back to America to retire, they took my mother with them so that she could live with her younger sister, Aunt Emma. They had originally moved to Osaka from the states to be closer to our family. After mom moved back in with her parents, they saw no point in staying except to keep from separating Jillian and I all that much.

When they left for America, I moved back in with my father and Jill. The switch that had cut off the bitterness was flipped back on, and every time I looked at my foster father, my blood began to boil under my skin. He had ruined Jillian, spoiling her and leaving her in Shiori`s hands. Shiori, who had single handedly taken in another child when she already struggled to have time for her own son. She had given Jillian the attention and validation that our father had never given her. I was certain that without that woman, Jillian would have buried herself before I could help her.

And Shuichi was going to inflict emotional pain on the only woman that was responsible for Jillian`s well being by letting the Forlorn Hope take his life. I debated in my head which would be better. Shuichi dies/Shiori dies? I`d rather witness Kurama mourn the woman who laid in peace than watch Shiori forever mourn her only baby. Of course, I would also have preferred the woman live over the demon. Kurama didn`t seem to vex himself over how Shiori would have died of sadness long before any ailment could kill her off.

I watched as Shuichi crouched over the mirror, calling it to surface in the moonlight as Yusuke watched, beads of sweat rolling down his face. The boy had gotten too emotionally invested, I should have assumed he would do something reckless in order to save Shuichi, but I didn`t expect him to dive in and offer up his life instead. The life that Koenma had worked so hard to give back.

The more I dwelled over Urameshi`s circumstances, the more jealous of him I became. I`d admit to being a little irate that he was Koenma`s new favorite, but he gave Yusuke not only his life but it was his body he had returned him to. I was no better than Youko Kurama, who had just forced himself onto Shuichi. I felt impure being in Elise`s body, though Koenma had explained that she was dying anyway. I felt deserted inside her sometimes, and I felt that I was the only being in the body. Maybe he hadn`t lied about her being sick. Maybe her soul had left the moment mine had entered.

As the mirror enveloped the boys in the moonlight it had been reflecting, my breath caught in my throat and I stared at them with wide eyes.

Maybe I only told myself that because I was trying to suppress the thought that I was no better than Kurama.

But I wasn`t like him, he had taken a life that did not belong to him. I had been forced to take Elise`s body, hadn`t I? There was no way I could have prevented it, right?

I shook Yusuke as he laid on the rooftop alongside Kurama, wondering if either of them survived the blow. To my horror, Kurama rose to his feet first, trembling to find himself still alive. He didn`t bother to look back at Yusuke and I. Instead, he fled the rooftop to check on Shiori without a word. I bit a frustrated cry as I shook Yusuke violently, panicking. Koenma saw something in that boy and he stuck his neck out for a criminal!

I turned away after realizing it was useless, burying my face in my knees. I was guilty of being selfish as well. Most of me wanted to wake Urameshi to question him about the process he`d gone through to get his life back. I needed to know if Koenma forged my consent without me knowing. I should have had a choice in taking Elise`s body.

My head shot back up when I heard a soft groan, and I watched as Yusuke propped himself back up on his elbows.

"H-Hey! I`m alive!" He grinned from ear to ear as I watched him sit up on his own.

The Forlorn Hope spoke up, informing the both of us that it had spared Yusuke and Kurama due to the nobility of the wish, and Yusuke`s selfless act to offer his life for Kurama`s.

"Wonder if his mom`s okay," Yusuke looked longingly towards the door for a moment as I mustered up the courage to ask him how Koenma had gone about returning his body to him.

However, I was so unfortunately interrupted by Botan flying in and demanding to know what had happened on the rooftop that evening. I feared asking in front of the Pilot, wondering if she would relay my concerns to Koenma so that he could come up with an excuse.

I kept my mouth shut, and left the hospital with an anchor strapped to my chest.

* * *

"Thanks for waiting, Elise-chan," Keiko greeted me, and I noticed the miffed expression that had crossed her face as she hurriedly paced over to meet me at the entrance to Sarayashiki.

"Did you find him?" I asked casually as we made our way down the sidewalk. She nodded solemnly, slowly, as if the very mention of Yusuke was exhausting.

"Hey, why do you look so sad?"

She shook her head from side to side, as if she was having some sort of internal confrontation with herself. I knew Yusuke was guilty of the long face she was putting on, as Keiko was always concerning herself with him. No doubt he had made her feel like a moron for being worried about him. It was apparent that I would have to give him a talking to after we recovered the third and final artifact.

"Don`t worry about Yusuke," I acknowledged the large multicolored elephant that had been hovering over her lowered head after a couple of minutes of walking in silence,

"Jillian always tells me that boys want what they can`t have. You have to play hard to get, stop letting him mess with your emotions, you know? Just ignore him for a while, he`ll knock it off and if he doesn`t,"

"_Screw 'em_." Keiko repeated the words that Jillian usually finished that speech with for me and she sighed,

"I hate boys." The words fell out of her mouth dejectedly, and I knew that my words hadn`t offered any comfort to her. I frowned as I looked Keiko over. She was a cute girl, with big, brown doe eyes and nice skin. She had an athletic figure, not skinny and lanky like myself. I knew plenty of boys in our grade that liked Keiko just fine that were far more socially acceptable than Yusuke.

"Let`s go get mani-pedis," I offered, "My treat."

"You paid last time, Elise," She whined, always against mooching off of me. I rolled my eyes, like I was going to go broke shelling out five thousand yen when our father handed it out as if he wiped his ass with it.

I opened my mouth to tell her to stuff it and come to the salon with me, but I stopped short when I saw the figure cloaked in black up ahead, with a strong demonic energy radiating towards me.

I reached out and yanked Keiko back behind me as I narrowed my eyes at the demon before us.

_Your face is even uglier scrunched up like that, girl._

I watched the demon in black smirk as I flinched upon hearing his voice in my head, deep, but not mellow like lower voices usually are. His was sharp and jagged, as if he had smoked a pack five minutes before.

"Elise," Keiko whispered to me, looking between the demon and I nervously,

"I know he`s a weirdo, but it`s rude to stare like that…" She tried to keep her voice quiet so that he could not hear. I didn`t concern myself with whether or not the demon thought it was rude of me to feel threatened by his presence. I was getting a strong feeling that this was my man.

_You`ll both make good slaves._

I watched as he unsheathed the Shadow sword and pulled it out from his cloak, lurching towards us. Quickly, I shoved Yukimura out of the way and dodged the blade that threatened to turn the both of us into Hiei`s drones.

I didn`t want to have Keiko witness the ace I had up my sleeve, but protecting her was more important than the possibility that our friendship may never be the same again.

Hiei cursed and turned to attack again as I pulled an arrow out of the air in a similar fashion in which the fairy godmother from Cinderella did her magic wand.

I spun the thin rod of spirit energy like a baton before using it to block the Shadow Sword from coming down on me. I felt the focus on my energy waver as he pressed down against the needle of light that I was using to shield myself from the blade.

"Keiko, get out of here!" I called back to her as she sat, bewildered in the middle of the abandoned road. The neighborhood, bathed in orange from the setting sun, was quiet. Most people were at home, making supper and retiring from the work day by now.

I tried to shove the demon off of me with the rod of energy, stumbling to the side as he disappeared once more.

He was much faster than I had expected of him, appearing out of no where like a phantasm, taking cheap shots at m. I looked back to see Keiko running down the street, making her getaway.

I yelped when Hiei appeared in front of me again. I narrowly dodged a blow to the stomach, hooking my fist up into his rigid jawline and getting in one solid blow. I sent him stumbling back for a moment, shocked at the amount of energy I had poured into my knuckles.

He kept getting too close to fire an arrow at, and he was too fast to pin point a target on. I needed Urameshi if the demon was going to fight dirty.

He vanished again, a moment before I was pulled into the air, sent flying over the shoulder of the demon and onto my back against the concrete, wind knocked from me. Smirking, the cloaked figure stepped onto my stomach with his thick-soled combat boots as I laid on the ground. Elise`s body was not used to this kind of fighting, and was in desperate need of training. The pain tolerance of her soft skin was too low for me to brush off as if it were nothing.

Hiei glared down at me as he traced the skin where I`d punched him a moment before. I felt my head pound, feeling a migraine coming on as I refused to break eye contact with him, not about to let Hiei win the silent stare down as well as the physical altercation.

"Tell the detective to bring the artifacts to the warehouses by the riverfront, otherwise he can forget about his _precious _Keiko."

With his threat, he jabbed his toe roughly into my jaw before disappearing as I laid on the ground, coughing and gasping for the air to return to my lungs after being knocked flat on my back.

Picking myself off the side of the road, I thought of how Yusuke planned on taking Hiei out, seeing that I was unfit to do the job alone. I knew he wouldn`t be fast enough to keep up with him. It would take another demon to match his strength and agility.

It struck me then that I knew of a demon that was indebted to Yusuke that may have been willing to help. I sprinted for the nearest phone booth, dialing the Minamino residence.

Jillian answered, sounding somewhat joyful for being at Shiori`s house. I filed my curiosity away, asking her to put Shuichi on the phone.

"He`s a little busy at the moment." Her voice was playful and taunting, and I didn`t have time for her practical jokes with Keiko`s life on the line.

"I need to talk to him about algebra homework. I`m kind of in a hurry."

I lied. Jillian gagged at the mention of the subject and informed me that she would retrieve Shuichi.

As I waited, two figured caught my eye from the other side of the river. Yusuke and Botan were headed for the warehouses, no doubt the demon compass directing them after Hiei`s you-ki. Stiffening at the idea Yusuke would jump into another case without me, I took my anger out on Shuichi as he picked up the receiver on the end of the phone line.

"Hello?"

"Warehouse on the riverfront. Hiei. Get here—_now_."

I didn`t bother putting the phone back on the hook before bolting in the direction Yusuke and Botan were headed. The warehouse was on my side of the river—if I ran fast enough we would arrive at the same time.

Shuichi had better show, I thought to myself, grinding my teeth as I ran. I didn`t trust him to take Hiei out for us, the only thing I had to hold onto was hope that he could at least be of some sort of assistance.

The distressed look on Yusuke`s face told me that he knew as much as I did in regards to Keiko`s kidnapping. He was sweating in fear of what had become of her, and all of Keiko`s worries about him not caring for her the way she longed for him to seemed so silly in that moment.

We shoved the doors open and stepped into the dimly lit warehouse, boxes piled high to the ceiling. I felt chills run down my spine, feeling watched and exposed in an area where only nocturnal beings could see efficiently. I could sense Botan`s fear, letting out enough terror to attract every demon in the city to us. I looked back to her, watching the reaper try to quell her tremorring. She had every right to be scared, as she too knew the kind of intimidating power Hiei had compared to Yusuke and I.

"Get out here, Hiei! I`m gonna kick your ass!" Yusuke`s voice rattled my eardrums. He truly was provoked when it came to the girl. The doors to the warehouse squealed shut behind us and the lights flickered brighter, illuminating the mounds of boxes. Simultaneously, the three of us looked back to see if he was behind us, ready to strike, but the hoard footsteps from in front of us were more alarming.

A mob of human drones stood before us, smiling unnervingly, some glaring.

"Who the hell are they?" Yusuke lifted a fist and shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet, ready to pounce at the right moment.

"Physically, they`re normal humans. But it looks like Hiei`s controlling their minds."

"What?!"

"The records department doesn`t know about this." Botan narrowed her eyes. That didn`t surprise me.

"The records department doesn`t know about a lot of things, Botan." I kept my eyes on the mob leering before us.

"He must be hiding a Jagan under that bandana." I faintly remembered a scorching amount of energy radiating towards me when we made eye contact.

"For him to be able to possess so many humans at once, he must have one."

"Jagan?" Yusuke glanced back at the two of us, wrinkling his forehead.

"Well done." Hiei chuckled before us, interrupting any chance for either of us to inform him of what the Jagan Eye was capable of. I had no doubt in my mind now that we were indefinitely screwed.

The Jagan stared, unblinking at us like the eye of Satan himself, inflamed and gleaming in the dark corner Hiei had been standing in, Shadow Sword in hand.

"I used my power to round them up this morning. They won`t do much good against you, but they do make excellent scenery."

He grinned, revealing tiny fangs on each of his molars, looking like a cat in heat, hissing at anyone that dared come too close.

"That`s some pimple." Yusuke observed and I couldn`t help but let out a single "Ha!" in response as he compared Hiei`s Jagan to a blemish.

"It`s the Jagan, a third eye for the spirits." Botan explained, not going into much detail. I wondered if she knew more about the Jagan than that, as it would have been useful to know what exactly he was capable of doing to us.

"A normal human would have succumbed to its' power by now, but I can see the geniuses in the Spirit World found a nice pick. That`s why I`ve brought insurance."

Yukimura was brought forward, supported only by the two lackeys that had her by each arm. Yusuke and I both tensed immediately at the sight of her, realizing that Hiei really hadn`t been bluffing. Not that I doubted the threat he`d made about capturing her, I had just hoped that she`d managed to escape.

Not that anyone could escape from the Jagan.

"Keiko! Hey!" Yusuke barked, "What do you plan to do with her?!"

"Nothing more if you brought me the weapons." Hiei`s tone made me nervous, as if he had already done Keiko in. I didn`t put it past him to use the Shadow Sword on her.

What was worse, she may not have been the first he`d tried it out on.

Yusuke reached into his pockets and to my horror, offered up the Forlorn Hope and the Orb of Baast to Hiei. I couldn`t bite my tongue and let Hiei take the artifacts after what I had already assumed he`d done to Keiko.

"Wait." I held my arm out in front of Urameshi,

"Keiko`s a little more important than the stupid mirror and the ball, America, we don`t have a—"

"How do we know you haven`t already done something to Keiko?" I stepped forward towards Hiei, standing my ground as the Jagan sent another wave of migraines at me. I bit back a wince of pain, waiting for Hiei to answer. Yusuke`s mouth fell slack, curious himself to know.

"You`re not as stupid as I thought." He sneered, and the two drones holding onto Keiko thrust her forward, letting her fall to the ground before us. Yusuke dropped the artifacts and fell to her side immediately, his heart getting the better of him.

As he repositioned the girl onto her back, her bangs swept out of the way, revealing a slit across her forehead. A lump formed in my throat as I realized he had turned Keiko into a less powerful form of himself, including a Jagan eye among her new abilities.

"What is that thing?" Yusuke continued to panic as the eye began to glow an inflamed red and slowly crept open.

"I`ve struck her with the Shadow Sword. Her future is mine." Hiei narrated over the three that remained on the ground.

"Once that Jagan eye opens, she becomes a demon. Not a very smart one, I`m afraid, but perfect for a slave."

I held my breath, willing the eye to close.

Botan shoved Yusuke out of her way and held her hands out, projecting her energy in an attempt to ward off the opening of the Jagan that was now centered on Keiko`s forehead.

Which was no easy task. I watched as Botan grit her teeth while using her energy. Her healing powers would dwindle to nothing just trying to ward off Keiko`s transformation.

"I`ll try to prevent it from opening. You go punch his brains out!" The reaper`s words were strained. I didn`t hesitate at this order to call on my energy to form a bow and arrow.

"Yes, you better punch them out quickly if you care about your assistant. I can feel her precious energy draining fast. Pity, her poor little body is giving-"

"Will you shut up already?" I snapped, interrupting his little speech and taking my aim,  
"Yusuke quit dicking around and help me take him down." I ordered to the boy who got to his feet, fists still clenched tightly. I`d listened long enough to the moron and I was growing tired of giving him my time while his Jagan took its toll on my senses.

"Botan will die using up all of her energy before Hiei shuts his god damned mouth."

"Is that true?" Yusuke turned back to the pilot, who shouted back,

"Don`t worry about me, Yusuke! I`ll stop it as long as I can!"

Hiei vanished atop a pile of boxes, frowning down at me,

"Well at least this makes the game more interesting." He mused, and Yusuke snarled up at him,

"What game?"

"The antidote for Keiko is in the hilt of the Shadow Sword." I explained, trying to distract him from Hiei`s taunts, never taking my eyes off of the demon as he glared down at me.

"We need that sword if we want to save her and Botan."

With that, I released an arrow, only to have Hiei dodge my fire, but just barely. The blast made a hole in the roof, allowing the fading light of the sunset to shine through.

I had hoped that with Yusuke as a distraction I could fire from a far enough distance.

Yusuke, full of rage and determination, launched himself upwards to the pile of boxes Hiei had leapt to and delivered a strong punch to the side of his face, sending him sailing back.

When Hiei had composed himself, he began yapping again. I took the opportunity to fire another cheap shot at him from the ground.

No, I wasn`t against fighting dirty when someone`s life was on the line.

Eight arrows remaining out of ten, I would have to limit myself to the shots that I were sure had a good chance of a hit.

Hiei laughed to himself again as he began to blur around the warehouse, daunting us with words such as,

"Can you keep up?"

He was right, though. I couldn`t fire off arrows at random and drain my reserve. My eyes could barely keep up, straining and burning to keep from blinking. I watched as the black figure appeared behind Yusuke.

The boy was on top of Hiei before the thought could register in my brain to warn him. He turned and landed another blow to Hiei`s face, sending him barreling into the crates scattered on the ground.

I had another arrow loaded and ready to fire at Hiei who was still managing to gather himself while in the broken crate, but of course, Yusuke stopped me out of manly pride.

"Hold your fire, America!" He called down to me, and I sent him an exasperated look.

"Are you insane?!" I shouted up to him.

"This is my fight!"

"They`re _all_ your fights, moron!"

"You can`t handle him!"

I scoffed at these words, ignoring him as I stepped closer to the crate, where I could begin to hear shuffling and a groan.

Caught off guard, I released the arrow after I saw him blur past me. I turned on my heel in time for my cheek to come in contact with Hiei`s fist, sending me sliding across the dirt floor.

"Consider this a compliment," I looked up as I slid to a stop against the wall, watching Hiei pull his cloak off, revealing more muscle than I thought someone with such little build would have.

"I`ve never transformed for a human before."

Wait, _what_?!

Hiei became bulkier and much …greener as he transformed into a more impish looking creature. As soon as he transformed, I felt my migraine grow more intense. I had encountered demons that had possessed the Jagan before, but I had grown soft, letting all of my abilities slacken. The eye was taking its toll.

I noticed Botan let out a gasp as the redness began to form on her hands. At least Hiei`s power hadn`t taken a physical toll on me yet. My migraine pulsed painfully as purple eyes began to appear all over Hiei`s body, and I held my head in my hands, trying to apply pressure to see if I could get the pain to subside.

I had too much confidence in myself. I should have known I was out of shape. How could I have been so careless? And, damn it, where was Kurama?!

"Both of your assistants are being drained of their energy. Now that I`m in my full, demon form, Keiko will join me any minute." Hiei cackled for what could have very well been the hundredth time that evening.

"Never!"

"There`s no reason to be upset. I`ll take you out of this world long before you have to see her!"

Fire. There was fire burning in my head. I began to curl into a ball, repressing the screams that caught in my throat. I wouldn`t let Hiei know how badly it hurt, I had my pride, after all. Even opening my eyes made them water, burning as nearly as badly as my head.

I looked up to see Yusuke wrapped in rings of fire, struggling to be released. He was sent crashing to the ground, yelping as he went down. Kurama wouldn`t show. He was a coward. Hiei was obviously the strongest of the three.

Hiei reached for the Shadow Sword once more, ready to turn Yusuke into a demon as well. I tried to focus my energy into my palms, but the burning made it hard to think of much else but the pain. I couldn`t tear my eyes from the two in front of me as Hiei ran forward to deliver the final blow.

I turned my head away at the last moment, not willing to accept that our last hope was about to be turned into an enemy as well.

The sound of Hiei halting upon impact verified Yusuke`s demise, and I opened my eyes, wincing in pain and fear of what had become of the boy.

"Oh!" I gasped as I opened my eyes to the sight of Kurama standing over Yusuke, with the Shadow Sword impaling him clean through. The fox demon stared at Hiei, a sort of satisfied, yet pained look on his face as he wrapped his hand around the blade, running it along the edge of the sword and slicing his palm open.

"You really have gone insane!" Hiei barked, just before Kurama threw the blood from his hand into Hiei`s Jagan.

I seized my moment as I felt the hold his eye had on me falter completely, letting my bow form in my hand.

"Hey! I`ve come untied!"

I took careful aim at Hiei, crouched over, holding his face in his clawed hands.

"The eyes on Hiei`s body are merely for amplification, without the Jagan on his forehead exposed, his powers become—"

The release of energy didn`t even exhaust me at that point, it flung forward, projected from the bow with all of my determination willing it to strike Hiei, centered directly into his core.

His body crashed through several more crates, disappearing across the warehouse somewhere in the debris. I sighed, relieved, assuming that would have been the end of Hiei.

…But it wasn`t. The demon came out, guns blazing and headed right toward me, a knuckle-sandwich with my name spelled across it. I braced myself for the hit.

Hiei`s fist was caught by Yusuke, who sent a fist of his own into Hiei`s gut. From there, a fistfight with too great of speed on both parts broke out, and I struggled to catch every kick and hit. I watched, slightly awed at how Yusuke grew stronger with every plot twist this battle had taken.

Eventually Hiei got the upper-hand again and it started to look as if he was using Yusuke as a punching bag.

I looked over to Keiko and Botan, who were both being relieved, thanks to Kurama, despite the gaping hole in his stomach. He had done more than I expected of him, and for that I was grateful.

The burning sensation crept back up on me, exhausting, and I leaned against the wall to watch the fight. Nothing but tiny sparks formed on the edges of my fingertips as I willed my energy to return to me. I was completely useless with his Jagan set in motion.

Yusuke was thrown against the wall, and slid to the ground with a suppressed groan. I felt my lungs catching fire as well, but realized that was due to the breath I had been holding as I watched Yusuke get back to his feet, using the wall to support himself as he…

Ran away. He was running away.

I narrowed my eyes, praying that this was only a strategy he was forming in his head, like he had when he shoved the log into Gouki`s mouth.

Trust Yusuke, my conscious echoed through the burning, he`s an idiot, but _trust him_.

The detective turned sharply, taking aim as Hiei pursued him. I watched as he fired his spirit gun in almost slow motion as, to my horror, it missed Hiei by a long shot. My mouth fell open, horrified.

Ugh, Yusuke! You have better aim than that! Angered thoughts inflated my head as I bit them back on my tongue.

Maybe I could use _his_ blood to blind Hiei and just finish him off.

I was distracted a moment later by a glint of light, passing by my field of vision and into Hiei`s back, knocking him to the ground.

I looked over to see the Forlorn Hope lying on the ground where Yusuke had left it, glass cracked and glinting in the dimly lit warehouse. I felt a goofy grin spread on my face as the burning subsided yet again due to Hiei transforming back into a more normal-looking form, uttering words I couldn`t hear from my distance. He fell, face forward onto the dirt.

Words couldn`t describe the giddy haze that rushed over me as I sprung to my feet, flinging myself at the detective who had leaned back on his hands as he laid on the ground before an unconscious Hiei.

"You smart, lovable punk, you!" I locked my arms around his neck, feeling overjoyed that he had come up with another last-minute trick to pull on the impossible demon.

"Yeah, yeah, you weren`t so bad yourself." I was brushed off by the detective as he struggled to stand, but managed on his own. He retrieved the shadow sword, taking the hilt with the medicine over to Keiko.

As he carefully tended to the girl, I felt a strange feeling wash over me. Longing entered me as I watched my partner care for the girl. It was so obvious he had feelings for her. I didn`t expect to feel jealous of their relationship, as they were just kids.

It was more of a disappointed feeling.

I spent the rest of my night in Spirit World, cleaning off the sword and re-assembling the mirror that had been cracked (thanks to Yusuke`s trick.). The most tedious task was sitting in the vault, gluing each piece of the Forlorn Hope back in the right spot, like a jigsaw puzzle. It wasn`t my responsibility to fix and polish the artifacts, but I knew Koenma would be too careless to think of doing it himself, thus subjecting his precious rear end to Enma`s spankings.

I shuddered at the thought of how disturbing it was for a father to bend a man well over the toddler years over his knee.

I returned to the apartment well into the early hours of the morning, dropping dead on the sofa as I was not able to make it to my own room. I was going to be exhausted the next day, and I had several exams to prepare for. I didn`t have time to be a Spirit Detective and a student.

As soon as I closed my eyes, I dreamt that time had stopped. The world stood still for a few hours, allowing me to catch up on the valuable hours of night that I had missed.

And when I had awakened to the light streaming through the windows, I felt warm and rested. I looked down, noticing the blanket I`d been covered with. Revitalized and awake, I was up in time to prepare for school. I couldn`t hold back the smile that stretched across my face as I laid, basking in the morning sun.

The scrap of paper on the table before me was noticeable, as the only other object Jillian allowed on the surface was a bouquet.

I leaned over, reading the familiar scrawl.

"Good work, Beckett. Sweet dreams."


	6. Melancholia

The punishment my father had given me was well worth her life. Though I had broken many rules when I forced Ume`s soul into Elise`s body, I hadn`t been disowned, the world hadn`t fallen apart. My backside may have been slightly bruised for a couple of weeks, and I walked funny for a few days…

But it was worth it. I watched the sisters playing in their room, Ume trying to regain her motor skills, trying her best to not be weighed down by her head. I couldn`t help but smile down on her as I had escaped my duties in the Reikai from time to time to watch her grow.

The older sister spent all of her time fussing over Ume, always watching her from outside of the playpen. When Ume had grown a little more, Jillian would help the child escape the pen and they would disappear from their parent`s sight for a while before they noticed and chased them down around the house.

Watching her in such a fragile state was frightening for me then. She used to be strong, able to defend herself. Stronger than I was, at least. Maybe a little pig-headed at times, stubborn with a drive to achieve the impossible. I knew that she would eventually come looking for me. I hadn`t erased her memories, hadn`t touched her mind at all. I should have, though. I had been selfish in letting her keep the memories of her previous life. I couldn`t cut the ties with her completely, even though my father had ordered me to. I wouldn`t do it. So I lied to him, and there were no further questions. I promised myself that no matter how much she begged to come back, that I wouldn`t let her get her way. I granted her this gift of life,

I would never endanger her again.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Melancholia  
****But you gave me wings and I used them  
****I used them on my youth**

"Jill," I knocked on the door, waiting for her to respond. I didn`t like when she ignored me. I wasn`t sure if I should stay or go, as anything could be happening inside of that bedroom.

"Jill please just answer me." I knocked again, waiting for an answer. The door flew open, and Jillian brushed past me as she made her way into the bathroom, brushing her teeth for the third time before I`d left for school that morning.

My sister had come home before I was out of bed for my morning run, slamming the door behind her so loud that I thought it had been thunder when I`d awakened. She then went to the bathroom and from behind the closed door I could hear the faucet running, and the furious scrubbing of her brush against her teeth.

Then the spitting, the rinsing and spitting repeatedly. She repeated to brush them before starting the shower.

I`d gotten home from my run and found her locked inside her bedroom. As I tried to dress myself, I knocked every few minutes to hear no reply.

I watched as the girl stood with damp hair in front of the sink, staring at herself with glassed over, grey eyes.

"Did something happen?" I asked, sitting on the edge of the bath tub to watch her hover over he sink with her toothbrush in hand.

She leaned forward, over the basin and inspected a patch of skin on her collar bone carefully, as if she was trying to pick out a precise pore.

"I`m not going to school today." Jillian`s voice was hoarse. She continued to search the other side of her collarbone now, looking carefully.

"Any improvements since the last time you checked?" I joked, pressing my chin against the palm of my hand as my elbow rested upon my knee. She straightened, putting her toothbrush on the counter and turning to me. She seemed so out of it.

I didn`t think anything of it really, as she did this every once in a while, letting herself be completely catatonic used to make me nervous, as I thought she would try to hurt herself. I had learned to let her be, let her stay home from school without chastising her for being lazy.

She walked back into the bedroom and climbed back into the unmade bed, falling onto the comforter as rolling onto her back, spreading her self out amongst the mattress and closing her eyes.

"I`m not going outside today." She spoke softly, rolling onto her side and facing away from me as she retracted her limbs into herself, curling up into the pillows.

"Be home for movie night, okay?" She asked in her slow drone, and I nodded, though she couldn`t see.

"Get some rest, okay?" I said, but there was no reply as the girl continued to stare out the window across from her bedside.

I locked her in the apartment, not that she couldn`t get out from the inside. It was a precaution, in case Shuichi tried to pick her up after school. I knew he would find a way in, what with being a demon thief and all, but it was the little things that made his life a tad more difficult that I took pleasure in. He wouldn`t leave her, Shiori would have a fit. I smiled as I tucked the keys back into my school bag.

I could sense something in the air, and it had made me think twice about leaving her. Demonic energy, little bits whirring by me as soon as I stepped outside.

I needed to talk to Koenma.

* * *

"What do you mean _not going_?"

I towered, menacingly, over the toddler seated at his desk, glowering down at him.

"Exactly what I said. You`re not going." He kept sifting through his paperwork, not bothering to look at me. I bit back a snarl, shoving all of his papers off of his desk to spite him.

"You can`t let Yusuke go by himself!" I shouted, spiting on him as his eyebrow twitched profusely. I had definitely provoked him. He didn`t like being bothered while he was working as it was.

"How do you keep managing to get here, anyway?" He ignored me again, starting on picking up the papers that had scattered all over. I took a deep breath, in and out, desperately trying to maintain myself before I was liable for murdering the toddler ruler.

"Why can`t I go, Koenma?"

"You got all of the Saint Beast files mixed into the River Styx census…"

"Koenma!" I reached over, lifting him up by the collar of his tunic and lifting him to eye level,

"Why are you treating me like a kid?"

"Because you are!" He shouted back, binky shooting over my shoulder and clattering on the tile behind me. A glaring contest ensued for several silent moments as we both stood our ground (not literally as Koenma was still hanging by his shirt).

"I`m sending Hiei and Kurama along with him. He`ll be fine."

"He will not be!" I sputtered, "Hiei? Kurama? Are you kidding me? They`ll stab Urameshi in the back before he can even say _Spirit Gun_! You can`t let him go with two convicts without _any_ backup!"

I was interrupted by a forced cough from the back of the room. Koenma and I both looked over to the figure that had been observing the spat.

"Elise, …Your Grace."

Vibrant green irises held an afterglow of amusement as he greeted the two of us, stepping forward as I leaned down and placed Koenma back on the ground.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, my tone holding a frantic, worrisome air, "Who`s with Jillian?"

Kurama`s amusement vanished upon the mention of the girl`s name, and he turned, directing a curious look to me,

"She`s sleeping, in your apartment. You seem a tad vexed, Elise-chan."

"Don`t you dare talk to me like that!" I snapped up at the snarky fox demon before turning back to Koenma,

"I`m not going to sit on my ass while the fate of the world rests in the hands of Youko Kurama, Hiei, and Yusuke Urameshi of all people!"

"It may be a wise decision for you to stay, Elise," Kurama interjected before Koenma could argue me himself. We both turned back to him again, Koenma in curiosity, I myself enraged that he wasn`t minding his own business.

"Your sister is what those insects target, the emotionally weak. I had to force feed her an antidote yesterday."

My mouth hung open at his words, and I balled my fists, growing more irate as more time passed.

"Consult me next time you want to play doctor on my sister." I growled from behind clenched teeth.

"Are you suggesting that I wait to act next time Jillian is in danger?"

I almost bit completely through my tongue to keep from melting Kurama`s face off. It made no sense to scream at him, my throat was already itching from how I`d been barking at Koenma earlier. He would have only found my rage entertaining, and I wasn`t about to become the demon theif`s source of entertainment.

"So you can`t trust the fate of the world with Kurama, but you`ll trust your sister with him." Koenma mused, flinching as I whipped around to ream him for his input,

"Jillian doesn`t need _him_ to watch out for her—"

"Yes, she seems completely stable aside from the fact that she`s just a little mentally ill."

"How _dare_ you talk about Jillian like that," I snapped back onto the criminal behind me, who stared with a satisfied half-smile in amusement of my anger.

"I`m only retaining the information from her diagnosis."

"You won`t be able to retain much if you keep talking." I hissed,

"I`m going, Koenma." I jabbed my index finger nearly into the toddler`s nose as I spoke,  
"Don`t you dare go back on your word! You told me I could do this!"

My voice was projecting more than I thought as I was bordering on hysterics at that point. My face flushed afterwards, realizing how loud I`d been. I looked to my feet, a little embarrassed at myself.

"Botan`s waiting for you outside."

I looked back up to the uneasy ruler, who was looking down at his recollected paper work.

"Kurama, take Elise with you and hustle, Hiei`s already been waiting for a while, and he won`t stand around forever."

I felt my lip twitch upwards at these words. The big softie.

"Shall we?" Kurama gestured to the door, and even though he was on my shit list, I couldn`t help but smile with the satisfaction that I had won. Again.

When we emerged on the demon plane, the feeling hit. It was no wonder human`s couldn`t stand to breathe the air here for more than a limited amount of time without dropping like house flies. The air itself burned my nose a little, but other than that irritation and the threatening storm clouds hanging above, I was feeling fine.

"I feel like I just stepped into _Where`s Waldo?" _I spoke to myself as I looked over the numerous walls of stone and complicated architecture that was the Castle itself. I recalled a book I`d once read about an underground labyrinth that people were sent to for a slow death.

I shuddered at the uncomforting thought as I watched from the branch I was standing on.

It was nothing to Hiei and Kurama, though, as they straightened from their bended knees when they landed on the plane behind me, catching themselves a little more gracefully than I had. I stumbled, but managed to steady myself as I looked out into the distance, eyeing the massive walls of Maze Castle.

Below us stood a bewildered Yusuke and another boy dressed in our school`s uniform. A pack of ghouls that had been attacking them below scattered under the peculiar entrance we had made, running screaming in fear. I couldn`t help but laugh, as they had every right to fear the three of us ourselves, however, the way we`d fallen like a poorly crafted paper airplane hadn`t seemed that intimidating to me.

I recognized the taller boy, with that unmistakable orange pompadour hairstyle and his slightly off, blue uniform. Kazuma Kuwabara, age fourteen. He sat on the other side of the classroom as Keiko and I, distancing himself towards the back-opposite end of Yusuke, his sworn enemy for the past two years I`d known of his existence and their rivalry.

Though, I supposed it was no longer a rivalry but a partnership; seeing that he could only have been transported here to help. It was a tad reassuring that there was another human among us, though slightly alarming as I wasn`t sure what the boy was (or wasn`t) capable of.

"It seems you could use some help." Kurama called down to them, his tone bemused at the ghouls running in fear. I bristled at the energy he and Hiei were giving off. It was cocky, and I could tell they were letting the power of being in their own territory once again get to their heads.

"If those nothings were too much for you, we`re going to have some serious trouble." Hiei added from beside his ally, scoffing at the two below us. Lightning cracked above our heads, and Yusuke`s eyes widened as our faces were illuminated in the tree. The two demons leapt to the ground, myself following close behind.

"Well, well, well," Yusuke grinned, "The thieves."

"Hello," Kurama greeted, Yusuke seemed as shocked as I had been that the two demons would be joining us. Shocked, but relieved.

"What are you doing here?"

"Even that fool Koenma knew it would take more than human power to kill the Saint Beasts." Hiei spat, and the irritated sideways glance I gave him as he spoke ill of Koenma went unnoticed.

"By aiding in this mission, Koenma has assured us that we can clean our slates in Spirit World." Kurama explained, causing me to freeze. I whirled on the two, as I had been ignorant to that piece of information,

"Wait a minute," I raised my voice, stepping forward,  
"He said _what_?"

"Eh-" Kuwabara stuttered, raising a finger to point past the two demon thieves and at me, eyes wide,

"Beckett, this ain`t no place for a girl!"

I brushed myself off, giving Kuwabara Kazuma a strange look. I had heard his friends mention his psychic abilities here and there, but was unaware of any other strengths. Even school boy scrabbles weren`t enough to prepare him for the saint beasts.

"I wouldn`t be too sure about that. Koenma obviously doesn`t have his hat on straight." I locked eyes with Hiei and Kurama, sending them a warning glare, silently warning them that if I had any influence over Koenma, the two wouldn`t be getting off the hook so easy. The two sent me cold looks, but silently acknowledging the threat.

"I`m surprised to see you as well, Kuwabara." I shot Yusuke a concerned look,

"How did you manage to drag him into this one, Urameshi?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Yusuke stepped back, putting up his hands,

"Maybe we should all introduce ourselves." He turned back to Kuwabara, gesturing to the other two beside me,

"That`s Hiei, and his name is Kurama. Oh, and America over here can pack a pretty good punch herself. I`m assuming you both know of each other." Yusuke looked back and forth between the two of us,

"And uh, Kuwabara should be able to manage."

"Watch it, Punk," Kuwabara spoke between his teeth before pivoting and looking to me,

"Just stick close to me, I`ll protect you, Blondie." He winked, and I couldn`t help but roll my eyes and feel a childish grin break out at him. I had witnessed Kuwabara try to impress some girls in our grade before. He was rough around the edges, but sweet.

"Back atcha." I winked, stepping past the two boys to get a closer look at the castle.

"Well I don`t have a clue what`s going on, but it sure is nice to have a helping hand." I could hear Hiei`s snarky reply to Kazuma from a few feet away as I continued forward,

"_Helping _is not the right word."

I stopped, turning back to send Hiei another sharp stare as he continued to spew his abysmal, macho bullshit at the two human boys.

"Koenma may regard us as equals, but I do not. Once inside the castle, I suggest you let us do the work. As far as I`m concerned, we`re _babysitting_."

I watched as Kurama shook with silent laughter at these words, and I ground my teeth together loud enough to be sure that they could all hear me bristling even from the feet separating us.

"Listen here, puny jerk face! I`m gunna have to beat you up if you keep talkin' down to us that way!" Kuwabara`s pride of course let him get the better of himself. He should have kept his mouth shut, monsters like Hiei and Kurama didn`t vex themselves over human threats anyway.

With the exception of my threat, of course.

"Let`s avoid fighting. You`re not worth it."

"Oh, that`s it!" Kuwabara threw a fist, missing as Hiei stepped forward, burring slightly as he advanced to Yusuke,

"But you, detective are a different story. I plan to take my revenge on you, so consider this fair warning."

"So you`re gunna ignore me, huh?" Kuwabara, still enraged, picked himself off the ground where he`d landed after missing the smaller demon, readying himself for another hit that he would miss.

"We don`t have time for your petty bullshit right now!" I shouted back to them. All four boys turned once I`d gotten their attention,

"It`s movie night with Jill and Keiko and they`ll kill me if I`m late. So can we please quit squabbling like a bunch of school girls and get this shit done with?"

"She does have a point." Kurama pointed out to them as, shoving his hands in his pockets and moving past the other three to carry on towards the castle.

I locked eyes with Yusuke, who took the same stance as Kurama, slouching as he too moved on from the other two.

"Now this place is homey." More like _homely_. Yusuke`s sarcasm had me scoffing at the entrance to the castle-that which resembled the mouth of a beast. The hallway stretched out before us was dark, screaming at us to turn back. Maze`s Castle was earning it`s reputation thus far.

"We had better make it back home by nine. Jillian always finds some bogus reason as to why she gets to pick the movie. If I make her wait, Keiko and I will be stuck watching Princess movies and _Heathers_ for the thousandth time…"

I pushed forward as the boys stiffened at my aggressive behavior. I wasn`t afraid of a dark tunnel, or the demon traps that could be lying in wait of us. Well, to be honest I was, but whatever the hell was going to get it done and over with so that Keiko and I didn`t have to sit through a poorly Japanese-dubbed _Heathers_ again was worth the risk.

As we walked in silence I thought of Jillian, and wondered if she was alright. I had been worried since Kurama had told me she had already been bitten before. What if it had happened again?

Thoughts were broken by the blur out of the corner of my vision. I looked up to see an eyeball blinking at me from between a pair of bat wings. I heard the boy`s footsteps stop behind me as we stared.

"Welcome to Maze Castle," It squeaked, in a voice that was more cute than sinister.

"Whoa, it talked!" Thanks for the riveting update, Kuwabara, I thought to myself, staring, unblinking at the demon before us.

"Those who enter Maze Castle must be tried by the Gates of Betrayal."

Shit, I thought. A trial, this wouldn`t be good. I looked around us to see nothing but hallway still remaining. Whatever it was-it was about to take us by surprise.

"What do you mean tried?!" Yusuke growled from behind me.

The demon blinked before turning and beating it down the hallway, where a piece of the wall slid from its place, revealing a handle. I braced myself, weight on the balls of my feet.

The bat demon reached out a tentacle and wrapped it around the handle, pulling it down. I felt the hallway begin to shake, and I was frozen as I looked for something that would roll over and flatten us all completely.

"The ceiling!" Kurama cried as he looked upwards in horror as the stone came crashing down upon us.


	7. Camisado

I flinched away at the sight of the ceiling crashing down upon the boys and Kimura.

"Ugh—I can`t look,"

"They`re still alive, Koenma Sir!"

Trusting in George`s words, I opened one eye slowly to watch the monitor as the five struggled to keep the ceiling from crushing them, arms above their heads.

I grit my teeth as I watched sweat roll down the girl`s face as she struggled to keep herself alive. I shouldn`t have given in when she complained. Why was I such a sucker for her? Same shit, different body. Cobalt eyes had just as much affect on the heart strings as they did when they were when hey were wide, chestnut. Who was I to deprive Ume of the desire to constantly test her abilities. She never stopped wanting to be stronger, to put her well being on trial just to test her limits, to experiment and gamble with herself until she had eventually met her match.  
And then what would I do? Transfer her soul again?

As if that wasn`t tricky enough. Ume`s soul had already been transferred to Elise`s body. The human soul wasn`t meant to undergo such strain. In most circumstances, without the help of yours truly, a soul can only possess a body for up to half an hour.

Even I did not possess the power to keep her alive forever. It was possible that if I were to transfer her a third time, the soul would deteriorate and she would be lost… And I had let a pair of blue eyes compromise my judgment?

I bit down on the Mafuken in my mouth, letting it absorb the anger I was emitting. Damn that girl, and her hold over me. Driving me to bend the rules to give her life, and then forcing my hand in letting her accompany Yusuke on a dangerous mission. I had never felt so spineless.

If she were to somehow manage to survive this, I was going to ensure that she would never be given an opportunity like this again. No matter how much she begged, cried, abused me, I wouldn`t give in for anything. I couldn`t if I didn`t want to lose her.

* * *

**Chapter 7: Camisado  
****Tree of life, dying breath, I hold them both with my blue eyes.  
****Whatever fate may come, I will not go gentle into that night**.  


"Heavy, isn`t it?"

I should have known this was going to happen. Who just walks into an old castle run by four strong demons and expects the place to be clean?

"Senses in the corridor are most intelligent. And a complex assembly of gears adapts the ceiling's weight precisely to the strength of its victim. Of course, there is a catch."

There always is, I thought to myself.

"Just enough leeway remains for one person to escape, leaving their friends to be crushed by the weight."

"Of course." I spat, hearing Yusuke cursing from behind me at the same time.

I wasn`t about to allow myself to die again by falling into a trap. Shinobu would certainly find the humor in my situation. I didn`t miss the way the old detective had babied me, making me out to be a weakling whenever we were sent out. At least Yusuke treated me as an equal, whether or not Koenma permitted.

"The decisions must be made quickly,"

That was obvious. I was faltering under the increasing weight of the stone ceiling.

"Not even the five of you combined can hold the ceiling for long. Insist on teamwork and everyone will be crushed. Only by turning on your friends will one of you be able to escape. Only the traitor among you deserves to enter Maze Castle. That`s why it's called the Gate of Betrayal, you see."

Clever. I rolled my eyes, about to make a snarky retort about the name of the little boobi trap when I felt a shooting pain extending from my left elbow to my wrist. When the ceiling had fallen, I`d put my hand up too fast and the strain on my arm was taking its toll.

"Boy, I`d like to get my hands on that bat thing!" Kuwabara choked out from behind grit teeth.

"Stay focused on the weight, or you`ll kill us all!" Hiei barked from somewhere back to my left.

"Oh sure, blame me, I bet I`m holding up a lot more weight than you are!" Kuwabara couldn`t resist shouting back at the demon.

"Shut it, Kuwabara!"

Ah, thankfully Yusuke was strong enough to speak while focusing on keeping the ceiling up. He`d taken the words straight from my mouth.

"Well, I`m not about to die for the sake of you worthless humans." Hiei spat back, and I had to restrain myself from letting the ceiling go. It would be a loss though, what with the two human boys still remaining under.

When had I gotten so bitter? At least Hiei didn`t parade around, pretending to be something that he was not.

"Don`t you even consider it, Hiei!"

I felt myself grow tense at the sound of Kurama` voice to my right. It was no secret that he was just as vindictive as the other monster in the hallway, so why did he chose to pretend he was as innocent as Mother Theresa? If we survived, I was going to fight my father to get my sister out from under his roof. It couldn`t be good for her psyche to withstand him any longer. Whatever redeeming human qualities Shuichi may have once possessed had been overrun by Kurama. Even his flesh was demon, as he was able to heal after being impaled without medical assistance. I was no fool, if Shuichi`s soul had any awareness at all it was still highly unlikely that he could convince the thousand year old demon inside of half the compassion we were capable of.

Christ, could this ceiling get any heavier?

"This has always been my favorite part of the trial."

Of course it was. I silently constructed a plan where we managed to coerce the bat demon into flying under the ceiling and then letting him be crushed as well. If we were going down, I would be damned if I let the annoying purple big keep his life as well.

"Watching the way you squirm as your muscles pop and tear under the ceiling`s weight... But of course the best is your eyes—seeing the gears of thought turn to desperation. Thinking… Questioning yourself; How long can I hold this? Will I die this way? Will one friend betray us and escape while we flatten…Or should I be the one?"

"Just… ignore that _thing_," Kuwabara spoke up again. I could smell the sweat and testosterone radiating from behind me, "Stick together,"

"And if anybody tries to run, I swear I`ll drag them back myself!"

If I had the strength to roll my eyes, I would have, but unfortunately all of my strength was focused on holding the ceiling up. Arms burning, I would never complain about weight lifting in gym class again after this.

"And I suppose you think it'd be noble if we all died as a team?" Hiei drawled out, and I realized that if we hadn`t been in such a sticky situation, I may eventually grow to like Hiei if anything for the comedic relief his unknowingly dry sense of humor gave me.

"Here`s a thought," Yusuke snarled to my right, "Let`s shut up and find a way out!"

The ceiling lowered several inches more and I let a pained cry escape my lips. I heard the detective gasp behind me as I struggled to keep the weight.

"Hiei!" He called back to the demon, "You`re a lot faster than any of us. We`ll hold the ceiling up while you go flip the switch."

I grit my teeth at his words. Even if Yusuke trusted in Hiei, he was gambling with our lives. I hated that the idea surfaced in my mind, but I couldn`t help but wonder what Shinobu would do in this situation. Of course, had it been Shinobu and I on this mission, he would have scoped the place out to make sure that it was cleaner than Princess Diana`s colon before I`d set foot in the place.

"You—crazy? We… can't trust that guy! Just look—he doesn`t care at all about us!" Kuwabara stammered out.

"Your ugly friend has a good point detective." Hiei`s tone was conceited, snarky for the situation at hand. Certainly he was very concerned about maintaining his image. His priorities were a little out of whack.

"Who`s ugly? C`mere you mouse…"

"Are you sure you want to trust me? I`ve already vowed my revenge on you… Maybe I'll handle that now."

"Oh… cut the _crap_, Hiei," I turned my head back so that I wouldn`t have to force to project my voice,

"We all know you`re knee-deep in Yusuke`s sweet love-hole to go about your revenge that way, so just flip the damn switch already."

I heard Kuwabara suppress an unmanly giggle behind me while repeating the phrase, 'sweet love hole' over again while the demon fumed at my choice of words.

"What America here means is, we don`t think quick deaths aren`t your style." Yusuke covered, and I could feel his eyes digging into my back angrily for trying to sabotage our chances of getting Hiei to save us all.

"I`ll let out all of the spirit power I have left to buy us a little time while you run to the switch... Just don`t trip."

I couldn`t watch the emotional, romantic exchange of looks that had gone on between Hiei and Yusuke, but the tone of the detective`s voice was sappy enough for me to understand that he was trying to build a trusting relationship with the demon,

"I trust you—now _go_!"

There was a brief moment of silence before I felt the air speed past me, as Hiei appeared on the other side of the long hallway, stopping before the switch, pausing. The ceiling inched further down, and for some reason I was beginning to see red.

Then I realized it was Yusuke`s energy that was filling my senses, the red glow emitted from the boy behind me. Taking his lead, I projected the energy I had left to force the ceiling upwards while Hiei debated on whether he should save us or not.

"What`s the deal? Pull the stupid switch already!" Kuwabara bellowed, and I couldn`t help but wonder what Hiei was thinking as he looked back at us with concern, sweat rolling down the side of his face.

Something wasn`t right here. Another trap, maybe.

"There is no need to make snap judgments, my friend. What have they ever done for you?" The one eyed bat spoke down to Hiei, "Leave them, and you can come with me into the castle. With the invasion of Earth, the Four Saint Beasts will control the future. Be smart, _join us__. _Perhaps you can be the general of our demon army…"

Okay, even Hiei wasn`t that stupid. As if the Four Saint Beasts would let his freak ass into their group. I watched as he smirked at the words, knowing that the demon was full of shit.

"Don't—you dare, you creep, if it hadn`t been for our help, you`d still be screaming with the rest of us!" Kuwabara, after all this time, still had the strength to speak. It was apparent that I may very well have been the weakest fighter there.

Hiei let out a chuckle, finding it all very amusing. Either he was about to fuck us over, or fuck up the bat.

Please, let it be the bat.

"Why are you laughing?!" Jesus, how could Kuwabara so easily shout at Hiei? He should have been channeling that energy into keeping all of us from being flattened!

"Take a guess, you fool," Hiei hissed, smirk still plastered on his face. The suspense was killing me far more faster than the weight of the ceiling.

"Yes, you find amusement in their pain!" The bat cackled, "Now imagine the satisfaction that will come from their final screams!"

I was losing my footing as the ceiling continued to lower. I wasn`t sure if there would be enough energy left in me to scream at the end of all of this.

" A wise choice," And with the next seven words, the bat sealed his fate,

"The boulder would have crushed you anyway."

Ah, the catch. I could no longer see Hiei`s face from the lowered ceiling, but I did see him take a step, and the cry of the injured bat demon as the sound of Hiei`s sword cutting into flesh echoed down the corridor.

The next thing I knew, the weight of the ceiling vanished, freezing in its place. I dropped to both knees, sighing with relief and putting my hands on the ground, leaning down.

"He came through!" Yusuke shouted in relief, a smile heard in his voice. And then, the crashing sound rattled the Earth around me, and I whimpered, assuming it was the ceiling crushing us.

Instead, Yusuke`s panic cry for the demon that had pulled the lever convinced me otherwise.

Hands slipped around me, and I was pulled to my feet, hunched over as another presence willed me to move forward and out of the tight space. I didn`t fight Kurama, as I was tired enough already.

Outside the corridor, the demon that had freed us stood atop a large boulder, what I assumed had caused the miniature earthquake. I straightened, placing my hand on my back as I stretched, feeling the spine cracking and popping. Jillian had been right about my shitty posture eventually being the death of me. I felt like hell and we hadn`t even fought one beast yet.

"Are you alright?" Kurama spoke low, leaning over to speak directly to me. I tried not to glare sideways at him, but it couldn`t be helped. I shuffled closer to Yusuke and Kuwabara,

"I`m great."

I noticed the detective look over at me, hearing my unconvincing tone of voice. I shot him a rude look as well, and he let out a sigh, making a slight whimpering sound that had been very similar to the one I`d made when the weight had been lifted as he keeled over.

"Hey, are you alright?" Kuwabara asked his friend, to which Urameshi replied with,

"Oh yeah, I just can`t feel my arms, is all."

"I second that." I mumbled, rubbing my left forearm with my right hand, massaging my wrist.

Yusuke recovered when Hiei leaped from the boulder, giving the demon boy a thumbs up. Nervous sweat still rolled off the side of his face as he spoke,

"I knew you`d save us, you punk," He pat Hiei a couple of times before finishing with, "You did have me worried for a second. Hell of an actor… Not everyone can pretend to laugh at their dying friends, heh,"

"Ha! _Friends_ are a crutch for the weak. I wasn`t acting." Hiei snarled, causing Yusuke to repress his laughter, while Kuwabara panicked out loud.

Of course, this was just his 'tough guy' façade. He was secretly still elbow deep in Yusuke` asshole. I rolled my eyes at their exchange, and went unnoticed by the rest of the group.

"Don`t confuse it!" Hiei jabbed his index finger at us, "The only reason I saved you is because I might need your help."

"You`re a liar," I accused, "But thanks anyway." Hiei let out an infuriated snort through his nostrils before shoving his hands in his cloak`s pockets and striding off.

"It`s his way of saying, 'You`re Welcome'," Kurama chuckled lightly at the other demon boy`s behavior.

"Right,"

"Well, he_ still_ ticks me off." Once again, my eyes lifted upwards. What I wouldn`t give to have these boys take the missions as seriously as Shinobu did. They were in for a rude awakening when they found that demons did not wait for this kind of sentimental, group bullshit we were so keen on wasting time over.

"Eh, hey, Elise, wait up!" Yusuke called after as I turned to the left, the opposite direction of where Hiei had started in,

"Where are you going?" He called out to me as I paused, turning to address him.

"If we split, we`ll be able to take out these beasts much faster." I called back,

"You aren`t the only detective here, you know."

"Don`t you think that`s a little a unwise?" The other snarky demon chided, "It`d be a shame if I had to tell Jill that you had fallen to an alternate world because you refused to work as a team"

"Keep making comments like that, you vile Youko, and someone else will have to tell my sister that I took you down with me." I spat.

"Urameshi, we can`t just let Beckett go." Kuwabara`s concerned voice was low, but I could still pick it up.

"Let Captain America go, if that`s what she wants, that know it all attitude is really starting to piss me off," Yusuke, now irritated announced, loud enough to reach the ears of my still retreating figure.

"I don`t care if you`re a girl, America! If Koenma gets pissed off at me for leaving you, I will kick your ass!"

"Sayonara!" I shouted back, ignoring his comments, waving my hand back at them as I moved forward through the dimly lit tunnel.

Now, I wasn`t exactly hoping that the boys would get themselves lost in Maze Castle, but after venturing out and snooping around for a little while, I was beginning to fully understand why it was called Maze Castle. I didn`t want to be the idiot that they had to end up searching for when everything was said and done.

Not that I had much faith in them anyway.

What I thought to be another trap, started as a low rumble at first. I could feel the vibrations of sound shaking my body. I braced myself, back against the wall so that I could see both sides with ease.

Then came the debris, pieces of ceiling started to chip and clatter to the stone floor as the sound of growls became louder, causing the entire building to quiver, the sound of the architecture around me groaning from the stress. I made a run for it as another growl send the building shaking enough to land at least a 5.0 on the Richter scale.

It was Byakko, but he wasn`t close. I wondered what the boys were up to now. If they had Byakko`s hands tied, that meant there were three more that could corner me at any moment, and I didn`t like those odds.

I pushed myself through the double doors at the end of the hallway, leading out into the light just before the ceiling fell in, leaving a pile of broken stone in the door way only inches from where I stood, letting the dust settle.

I was about halfway up, standing in a courtyard, though there wasn`t much except for a patch of green and a few broken stone statues.

"You must have been separated from your group."

A figure stepped out from behind one of said statues, violet eyes, blonde hair, which appeared to be dip-dyed in red as the uneven strips of hair hung on either side of his face. He wore a sort of crown, placed across the middle of his forehead, a green gem centered on it.

"I separated myself," Judging by his human appearance, I assumed he was the strongest of the beasts. He was dressed more like a prince than a demon.

The demon chuckled, "And I suppose you thought you could take on the Saint Beasts on your own?"

"Not all four at once, but yeah." The reply was completely arrogant sounding, but I couldn`t resist.

"You`re a funny girl," He crossed his arms, smiling, "And what do you go by?"

"Elise." I didn`t bother with last names. I was only going to kill him anyway. I focused my energy into my left hand, forming a bow and in the right, an arrow.

"Really, now," He stepped closer, and I braced myself for an attack,

"Because from what I`ve heard… you go by a different name... Unless of course, that isn`t a bow in your hand."

I had frozen at the words. How had my identity been revealed to one of the beasts, after not being allowed outside of the walls of the castle?

"You look a little pale." He observed.

"Who are you?" I ground out from behind clenched teeth. Who else knew about my true identity?

"My name is Suzaku. You`re surprised, aren`t you?" This Suzaku chuckled once more, rubbing his chin as he moved, walking in a circle around me. I pivoted as he moved, not breaking my stance as he observed me.

"Yes, you are the Reikai Archer. I`ve heard so much about you."

"From _who_?"

"Oh, …around."

I loaded the arrow onto the bow, aiming it at him, "Who did you hear that from?"

More laughter, "You think you scare me? A dog of the Spirit World militia… You`re much prettier than I expected. From what I`d heard, you were supposed to be plain."

I felt more anger swell inside me at the stab to my former appearance. Regardless of how plain my original form was, I still found offense.

Suzaku was not the first to inform me of my unattractiveness.

"If you must know, a little birdie told me," I was ready to fire, figuring he would not give me a direct answer. I was confident in the skills I`d gained after the past six months of working with my reiki, kicking the bad habits that had formed over the past fourteen years of rest.

The roars of Byakko echoed throughout the courtyard as I stared, unflinchingly at Suzaku, who was grinning in amusement as rubble from the above pillar of the castle fell around us, threatening to crush me.

Of course, the rubble was the least of my concerns.

"It`s a shame that I`ll have to singe your pretty, white hair." Suzaku stopped encircling me, his demeanor changing as he summoned his energy.

I didn`t have time to release an arrow, the burning sensation struck my senses completely unannounced. I felt the electricity travel from the ground below, spearing me through the crown of my head. I didn`t notice myself fall to my knees as I was shocked by the enormous bolt of lightening.

I should have never separated from the boys.

* * *

**...From the cutting room floor.**

**The following scene is an outtake from another fic I`m currently writing, **_**The Girl`s A Straight-Up Hustler**_**. I figured I would slip it in, considering it was written from Elise`s perspective. It was later replaced with a similar scene between Jillian and Shuichi.**

**Cheated**

"Ugh," I groaned, setting the empty quart container of ice cream on the coffee table as I leaned back onto the sofa. I turned to my sister, who was curled up on the sofa next to me in front of the television.

"Is there a diet where I can eat a quart of ice cream every day and stay skinny?" I asked, knowing I would only get sarcasm in return. Jillian`s slate colored eyes blinked up at me from her seat to my right before answering dryly,

"Suicide. It`s called suicide."

I felt the giggle fit rise in my throat at her reply, breaking out into a cackle as Jillian joined in on her own behalf.

"I can`t believe I just ate all of that." I nudged the empty container with a socked foot as I spoke.

"Better you than me." Jillian groaned, pausing the video we had been watching to pull herself form the coach to throw my trash away, unable to watch it sit there for the remaining thirty five minutes of Sleeping Beauty.

I wasn`t sure how much longer I could take these movies. I needed to eat to console myself while enduring the torture of children`s movies.

She grabbed a cable knit blanket from the shelf in the coat closet, wrapping herself up in it before seating herself back on the sofa, playing the movie.

"This used to by Mom`s favorite." I recalled, remembering how many times we`d sat through the movie, along with Cinderella and Snow White. She was the one that started Jillian on them.

My real mother had never infantilized me the way Christine Beckett had her children. We were spoiled, she had done too much for us. Well, until she lost her mind. I had been living with Jill for a full year then, and I was probably long forgotten.

"I know." Jillian`s voice was distant, focused intently on the movie. I wondered if she was thinking about her mother or if the movie was what had such a strong grip on her attention.

If was comical, really, that Jillian watched these movies over other genres such as action or comedy. She was a sucker for a love story and the slow ballads. She seemed so much more severe in public. If her classmates knew she spent her afternoons reading Jane Austen, they wouldn`t know what to do with themselves.

"I wish she could just remember." Her tone was dark, cold. I watched the tears sting her eyes, but she fought to keep them from falling, expression turning hard. She was furious that our mother couldn`t remember her existence. Jillian had been a complete momma`s girl as a small child, and though our parents vowed to love us equally, our mother had-though, discretely, favored her over me.

Jillian allowed our mother to dress her up and truly enjoy having a little girl all the while I turned a cold shoulder to her, having only let Jillian`s company in, as I considered myself her caretaker. If it weren`t for my sister, I would have deprived my new mother of the proper affection.

I didn`t speak, just leaned my head on the girl`s shoulder and wrapped my arms around her as she managed to fight down the emotional distress consuming her. I could feel her tense body under my arms, trying her best not to cry.

"How could you just forget your own kid?" I could hear the roughness of her voice, trying to force the words out while holding the overflowing dam of emotions that was backing up her throat, as if she were holding back vomit.

"It`s not her fault, Jill," I tried to reason the best that I could, but when Jillian wanted someone to blame for her misery, nothing got in her way.

"She remembers you!" Venom tinged her words, and I knew the shit storm was coming.

"I`m being cheated." She was turning angry now, shoving me away from her and getting up from the sofa to retreat to her room,

"Mom and Dad did this on purpose, they wanted this to happen!"

She started getting louder, voicing the wild assumptions she`d made about nonexistent conspiracies against her,

"Everyone is trying to fuck with me! Mom, Dad, even you! Even you`re fucking with me, aren`t you?" She shouted, turning back to the sofa, pacing back and forth as she raked her fingers through her blonde strands, tugging upwards on them.

"Jillian, what are you talking about?"

"You and Shuichi, you`re fucking with me! People can`t make flowers bloom in their hands, that`s just—you—he—you`re all trying to make me crazy!"

I watched as the girl pause before reaching her doorway, reaching for a half-full bottle of wine on the counter top. I knew she was about to pick it up and chuck it as hard as she could, but by the time I could shout for her to stop, the red liquid was spraying across the dark, wood cabinets and granite countertop, glass shattered all over. The heavy silence hanging above our heads was louder than the movie still playing in the background.

Jillian took one look at the mess she`d created, choosing not to let her OCD get the best of her. She slammed the door to her bedroom shut, frustrated screams could be heard through the door.

I groaned, shut off the VCR and made my way to the closet to look for the dustpan.


	8. Compromising Me

I watched Yusuke freeze before me as we ran, causing me to nearly run into him on our way up the stairs. I felt the hole in my stomach surge in pain once more as I dug my heals into the step, trying to maintain balance by tensing my core. My pride forbade me from letting out a yelp of discomfort.

In that silence, I could hear the faded echoing of another`s suffering.

"Elise," He hesitated, looking back at me for some sort of reassurance. I could only stare blankly to him, not surprised that she had run into trouble. It had been her decision to separate, she was smart enough to realize the risk she put herself in. Then again, she was Jillian`s sister, and had retained some of her ignorance.

"I told ya we shouldn`t have left her, Urameshi!" Kuwabara huffed, exhausted from fighting with Byakko only minutes before.

Koenma`s detective cursed, looking over to Hiei and Kuwabara before turning to me, brown eyes holding something unfamiliar in them; something like fear. That same fear was what I saw in myself when I thought I was going to lose my mother.

"I`m takin' a little detour," He stepped around me, Hiei looking down at him incredulously.

"She was the one foolish enough to go on without us," Hiei, unsympathetic, chastised the boy for taking action over the straggler,

"Even the oaf was smart enough to stay."

"Hiei has a point, Yusuke," I wasn`t purposely trying to disregard the girl, as I knew it would cause dear Jillian grief if something were to happen to her. However, she had gone off on her own, and in such arrogance.

"Please make haste, there are two more."

"Hey, I`ll catch up," He waved our words off, trying to remain casual, despite his tense stature as he looked up at me from a few steps back,

"We`ll meet up with you in a minute."

Kuwabara looked up at me, questioning whether to go on without him while Hiei`s footsteps faded farther up the stairs.

"Come on, Kuwabara. He`ll be back," I called over my shoulder as I continued after Hiei. It only made sense that a Beckett was throwing a wrench in our plans. When weren`t they?

* * *

**Chapter 8: Compromising Me  
Two sides twist, and then collide,  
****You`re callin' off the guards, I am coming through.**  


The sound of Suzaku`s laughter was rattling through my ear drums as I laid on the bricks, burned and bloodied from the lightening attacks he`d used on me.

"I was going to save you for last after I`d heard you and your group had overcome the Gates of Betrayal, but you had to go and separate yourself from the group."

Grinding my teeth, I tried crawling to my knees once again, my whole body protesting in searing agony for me to lie back down and let him kill me. A big part of me almost wanted to due to the pain, but I had too many responsibilities to just let that happen.

I stumbled to my feet, narrowing my already wincing eyes at the ball of lightening and spirit energy crackling violently in Suzaku`s grip. He had deflected my spirit energy, sending an arrow firing off into the forest surrounding the castle. I needed to channel my energy into something else, something that couldn`t easily be deflected.

"Ume Kimura, I`ve heard of you before." He circled me as he spoke, fiddling with the oddly shaped flute known as the Demon Whistle,

"You and your partner are feared by many here... But I can see now that you merely rode off of your partner`s victories. You`re nothing without that other boy,"

So he`d heard about Sensui. My eyes lingered on the whistle in his hand. I needed to find a way to destroy it. I wouldn`t be able to if he was holding onto it. As long as he held that whistle, he held control over the Makai insects, and my loved ones back home could be harmed at any moment.

For all that I knew, they may have already been. Kurama`s words from back in Koenma`s office were ringing through my head again, reminding me that Jillian could be possessed as easily as any other human with feeble, emotional stability.

Maybe I should have stayed behind. I could have been more use back home.

I glared at the whistle, determined to be the one to take it from Suzaku. My sister had already been a victim of Suzaku, and I wasn`t about to let myself be one too.

He charged me when I`d straightened, intent on making this the kill. Drawing back his fist, it erupted into the yellow static.

I stood my ground. If I couldn`t take the offense, I could use a defense. He could deflect my energy, so maybe I could use mine to deflect his and use the distraction to take his whistle…

I focused my energy into my left palm, meeting it with Suzaku`s fist and feeling the clash of energy send more pain through my already damaged, left forearm. First the ceiling; now lightening. It hurt far too much to even think about taking the flute, and I was airborne, sent backwards into a broken, stone pillar. I slumped to the ground, clutching onto the left arm protectively, as if it could crumble and blow away like ash in the breeze. Burn marks were etched all over the skin, and with every pulse of blood through my veins came anew surge of pain.

"Suzaku, Suzaku!"

I looked up from my crouched position as the exotic bird perched herself atop Suzaku`s shoulder, and began to coo into her master`s ear in her high-pitched voice. My vision began to double, fading in and out as I stared out at two Suzaku`s, as if one hadn`t been enough for me. I as lucky that it was only a delusion.

"I don`t have time to play with you any longer," Suzaku turned back to me after receiving the message from his pet, an angered expression crossing his face,

"Don`t get up." His voice was stern now, and I saw a flash of light before feeling the shock envelope my body. I could feel myself sinking back into my subconscious as my body was rattled by the electricity coursing through me.

I never felt my body stop rattling. I couldn`t escape the shock, even unconscious. It was almost as if I had been rocked to sleep by the volts and then awakened by them.

"Hello?! Hey, Elise, we don`t have time for you to be a damsel right now!"

I groaned as I heard the familiar voice projecting down on my limp body.

"I know you can hear me, America! Hey, what did I tell you, huh?!"

I wanted to speak, tell him to knock it off, but I couldn`t feel my lips. I felt numb, just let him shake me for a while.

"Hey, _hey!_"

I felt the impact of his warm palm against the side of my face, forcing my eyes to open in reaction. I stared up into the brown, doe eyes that were wide with concern.

"Atta girl," His eyes traced the scorch marks on me,

"He must have really been something," He noted, looking back to me with a sour look on his face. I closed my eyes briefly, trying to focus on taking deeper breaths. They snapped back open when I heard an alarm buzzing in Yusuke`s pocket; some sort of compact communication device. I could hear him groan, murmuring about how annoying the gadgets were beginning to get before hearing Koenma`s voice wailing over the speaker.

"I`m trying to find a breech in the barrier so that we can send a portal for Elise, you need to wait with her so that we make sure she`s delivered back safely."

His words forced the tidal wave of rage to rise up in me, sparking enough energy for me to sit and snatch the communication device from the boy next to me.

"Like hell you are!" I snapped, forcing a tickle up my throat which turned into a fit of coughing.

"I`m staying!" I tied the lump in my throat down with a deep breath before bursting into another fit. My throat was so _dry._

"You`re in no position to argue, Elise," The toddler snarled as he pressed his face as close as he could to the screen,

"I knew I shouldn`t have let you go with them! You`re done!"

"Would you quit trying to be my dad?" I snapped back, "You`re really starting to get on my nerves, what with all these restrictions you`ve been putting on me,"

"You`ve been really reckless for someone who`s been given another chance at-"

Too exhausted from Suzaku to argue with the toddler, I didn`t bother to reply to him. I flipped the compact shut before shoving back into Yusuke as he stared at me, confused,

"You know, it wouldn`t be a bad idea if you went back. We can handle it from here."

"No, thanks," I rasped as I tried to get back on my feet, legs trembling, vibrating under me violently as if they were still being electrocuted.

"Jeeze, if that little brat gave me the option of clocking out, you wouldn`t hear any objections."

"That`s the difference between you and I," I spat back at the boy, letting he stress of the situation get to me. Kurama, Suzaku, Koenma, and now Yusuke was starting to annoy me,

"When someone does me a favor, I do my best to repay them." I looked down at the boy, guilty marring his innocent, light hearted features,

"I won`t stop until I feel that I`ve paid my debt to Koenma. I won`t be able to live with myself until I`m satisfied in the work I`ve done for him."

"Must have been one helluva favor." He remarked, causing me to bite at my bottom lip. I beat myself up for letting something so private slip without thinking. I was getting much too comfortable around the boy.

"You could say that," I straightened, throwing my shoulders back despite the battered nerves and joints screaming in protest,

"We`d better go find the rest of the group before they take all of your glory, _Wonderboy_." Though I didn`t mean for the words to sound contemptuous, they came off that way. I was jealous of Yusuke, and how he`d taken the leader position. It was an ugly color on me, but the more I thought on it, the more it upset me.

"Hey hold on just a second!" I cringed when his fingers curled around my arm, pulling me back to face him. His grip softened when he noticed that I was wincing.

"This ain`t about me," His voice lowered several decibels, tone turning warmer,

"I don`t know exactly what`s going on with you, but that`s Koenma`s problem, okay? So don`t make it _my problem_,"

I went to retort, the words '_How dare you' _forming on the tip of my tongue, but he went on,

"I know you`re strong enough, we`ll do it together," I noticed something twinkle in his big, brown eyes, some of that golden boy charm that had won Keiko over,

"Let`s go find this asshole."

I felt the corner of my lip turn upwards, feeling something a sense of pride return to me, even after having myself burned to a crisp.

"Come on," He turned his back to me, and gestured for me to climb up. I thought about protesting, holding onto my pride with a tight grip, but it seemed foolish. I was tired, and I needed a rest if I was going to go up against Suzaku again.

I climbed onto his back, latching my arms around his neck, his arms holding my legs in place.

Yusuke was so much different from Shinobu. He genuinely cared for me as a team member. He had… respect for me, though he showed it in an odd way at times. Shinobu had always considered me a pain, leaving me in the dark about most

He pushed me away, working only on his own unless Koenma forced him to take me. Yusuke didn`t seem to care, didn`t object to a little help. Not even from demons.

He was probably the least prejudiced kid I`d ever met. There was no chip on his shoulder after the years of living with a lush mother and being shit on by Sarayashiki. I could admire the carefree personality he`d kept when he wasn`t putting on his delinquent bravado. It took a high maturity level than others could perceive.

This only motivated me to try harder, so that he wouldn`t feel like I was a burden. I wanted Yusuke to think that I was useful, not just take pity on me because I threw a little hissy fit like my older sister. I would never succumb to that level to get my way. I was not a child, though I had learned some of that behavior after being stuck in a new body for the past fourteen years.

We pushed forward, and I ignored all throbbing pains that rippled through me with every bump of Yusuke`s wavering balance as he ran with my lard ass on his back. We ran into dead ends here and there, but Yusuke seemed determined that he knew where he was going. I figured he had as much sense as I did when it came to directions in an unfamiliar building.

"Kuwabara took out some deformed version of Tony the Tiger. Some freak named Byakko," He explained as we rummaged around a corner, staring down another dimly lit, familiar looking corridor. I couldn`t tell if we`d been through it before or if all of the halls just looked the same.

"Kuwabara took out a Saint Beast on his own?" I asked as we pushed forward down the hallway, taking a left, up another stairwell.

"So has Kurama, but he`s injured,"

"Hold up!" I didn`t mean to shout in his ear, but I`d noticed that we had passed another hallway. One we hadn`t taken before.

The same hallway I`d been in when Byakko`s snarls had caused walls to collapse around me.

"This leads to the Gates of Betrayal," I raised my arm, pointing directly to the narrow opening of rubble that was once a wide, open entrance not an hour before.

I slipped off of the boy`s back and stepped closer to see if I could slip through.

"Well I guess that idea`s shot." I grumbled, shoving at the stones that were blocking the hall.

"Not yet," Yusuke pulled me back by the arm again, tugging me around as if I were a China doll, while my aching body screamed at me until I was released. The boy took aim at the rubble and fired away with his Rei Gun. I coughed as the dust from the blow caked itself in my lungs, causing me to choke. I hardly had any time to stand around gasping for breath as I was drug down the newly cleared hallway.

* * *

"Koenma Sir, you look so handsome," George approached me as I stood from the desk, about to depart the Reikai to drag Elise back myself. I should have just saved myself the trouble and stuck to my original plan; The 'No' word.

Can`t take the kid from the fight, I told myself. I would have to find a way to take the fight from Elise, and I wouldn`t be able to do that standing at sixty three centimeters in height.

She was determined to keep chasing after danger, regardless of the scare she had already had. Something was so wrong with the way she dove in head first into these cases since she`s latched herself onto Yusuke.

I had overlooked the thought before, that maybe she was trying to impress me, but her reasoning seemed to go much farther beyond. I had come to the conclusion that she felt guilt for taking Elise Beckett`s body. She felt she needed to provide a service to make up for taking a human life. Something she had not done, not willingly anyway. Even after I`d told her that the soul had been lost, she found no comfort in my words.

Maybe it was because her instincts could tell that it had all been a lie.

Another thing I had not been proud of. When King Yama had heard of what I`d done, he nearly disowned me. I had committed a crime under the radar, silently. I had no time to search for a body, exchanging one soul for the other, not paying attention to specifics. Unfortunately, I could not say that I regret the decision. I was happy that Ume was going to live what I thought would be an average, human life.

George gasped, overdramatically as usual, when a breech in the tile floor opened up, swirling in a counter-clockwise motioin.

"Koenma, are you really going to go to Maze Castle for that girl?" George asked, baffled by the brave face I`d put on. I had planned on watching Yusuke fight safely from the sanctuary of my office. Before Ume stepped in.

"What does it look like, Ogre?" I drawled out, looking back at her as I felt my teeth grind against the Mafuken setting between the upper and lower jaw.

George didn`t answer, only gave me a confused look. I turned back to the vortex at my feet,

"Do my a favor and keep my whereabouts from my father as best you can," I instructed, before lifting my right foot and stepping forward, falling through the barriers.

_No more nonsense_, _Ume_, I thought to myself,

_Just let me keep you safe as best as I can._


End file.
